Tree of Life
by AcausalTrilby
Summary: When Izuku Midoriya finally got his quirk he was overjoyed. With the power contained in his genetic code he would be able to fulfill his dream and become the No.1 Villain.
1. Chapter 1

Kohaku Kobun had always prided himself on his sharp instincts. If it wasn't for those sharp instincts then he wouldn't have survived all this time in the line of business. To be more specific he was a street level provider of certain substances that the law would rather he didn't and part of his job was to always be on the lookout for heroes, policemen or even rival competitors. Thus it was a rather big deal when he started to feel a bit of a tingle in the back of the neck that signalled he was being watched. It had unnerved him and he had passed off many chances of selling today due to the chance that somebody on the side of the law was watching him and just waiting for an excuse to arrest him.

That feeling had sharpened over the day and he had decided to head home early; nervously examining all the nearby streets for any sign of his possible pursuers. It was only when he finally inserted the key into the door leading to his crappy apartment and stepped inside that he managed to breathe easily.

"Nice place you have here," a feminine voice said and he felt his body jerked forcibly pulled inside the house at the same time that the door slammed shut behind him. He stumbled, barely managing to keep his footing before he managed to catch sight of the intruder. A young woman in a black suit and tie lay relaxing on the couch her long red hair splayed on the arm rest and her hands occupied by a Shiba Inu that panted while he watched Kohaku. "I'm lying of course," she said sitting upwards. "Don't they pay you better for selling poison?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kohaku said examining the woman nervously. He had felt her Quirk previously and it was probably some form of telekinesis. While it was probably powerful there were likely drawbacks and if he could get in range it wouldn't matter. He felt the amber beneath his skin stir as he tried to stall for time while waiting for a lapse in concentration. "Why have you broken into my house? If you're a villain then I don't have any money."

"I am a villain," the woman said confirming Kohaku's worst fears. While a hero or vigilante would likely hold back and try to lock him up; there was a good chance a villain would kill him outright. "But don't worry. I do not want your money. In fact I really shouldn't be wasting time talking with you. Your fate is up to the Boss after all."

It was at the moment that she mentioned her boss that her concentration seemed to lapse and she briefly looked to the side allowing a small window of opportunity. Kohaku lunged forward in that momentary lapse stretching out his arm and feeling the rush eject from the tips of his fingers. In just a few seconds she would be trapped and suffocating within the amber and it would be no time before she was suffocating. While he didn't enjoy killing he would do it easily if that prevented him from going to prison.

Except none of that happened and he felt a force hit in his midsection causing him to bend over briefly before he flew backwards and impacted the wall of his apartment. Bones broken on impact and a wave of darkness almost consumed him as he battled to stay conscious. His eyes fluttered open and he watched as that little innocuous Shiba Inu that he had overlooked stepped forward, but now it no longer looked half as innocent. Muscles bulged along the creatures body as it swelled up to a height of over two metres and its flesh warped into something indescribably horrifying, unrecognizable as any member of the canine family. Kohaku tried to struggle valiantly but his attempts to move were futile as its mouth opened, splitting into four pieces and Kohaku found himself enveloped in darkness.

xxx

Kohaku hit the ground hard as he was ejected from the darkness barely a second later and he rolled over a few times from the momentum. He tried clambering to his feet, only to wince as the effects of any broken bones he incurred prevented him from moving too quickly. Instead he was forced to stare at the grey concrete as he slowly tried to get to his feet.

"Well done Tiny," a smooth masculine voice said and he watched as that dog…. thing moved on past him before he arrived in front of the form of a man on one knee who scratched at the creature's ears. The man had neat, well-combed red hair and a pair of piercing yellow eyes that affixed Kohaku before he continued to minster to the dog uncaring of the dirt that he could possibly get on his immaculate blue suit.

"What about me Ears," the girl who had previously been in the apartment said; and Kohaku noticed that the pair of young adults looked to be very similar in facial structure and general body shape. Maybe they were brother and sister.

"If Tiny hadn't been there you would have failed, Hands," Ears said. "You still need a lot of practice."

"And she will Ears," a third voice said and Kohaku for the first time noticed the third person in the room. Unlike the previous two villains this person wore somewhat of a more informal attire. A large green overcoat, a match for his viridescent hair, that was a few sizes too big for him was draped over his shoulders and a white bandanna with a pair of whiskers on it lay across the bottom half of his face. He sat lazily on a wooden throne chair holding a baseball bat lazily in his left hand. "She still has time to practice and get used to her new position and her new power," he said as he got up out of the chair and started walking towards Kohaku, his baseball bat in hand.

"Okay Boss," the red-haired man said. "I'll let it go this time. What are we going to do with this… individual?" he said his voice full of distaste as he looked at Kohaku.

"I don't have anything on me," Kohaku screamed defensively raising his hands, feeling his injuries scream in pain. "All of my stash is back in my house. If you want it then I can give it to you. I can work with you. I know all of the…"

"That's enough," the green-haired man said and Kohaku shuddered at the coldness in his voice. As he walked closer he mentally revaluated the age of their boss down from young adult to teenager. He must have either have a very powerful Quirk or else he might be the son of somebody very important to these villains. "Kohaku Kobun, eyewitness reports claim that you have been selling the drug known as Trigger to the local populace. Just whom did you get this from?"

"I can't tell you…" Kohaku blurted out almost immediately and flinched back from the three hard looks he got, even the dog didn't seem to be happy with him. "If I tell you they will kill me."

"What makes you think that I won't kill you if you don't tell me," the leader of the trio said, his voice positively glacial. "I don't deal in drugs, nor do I tolerate people selling them on my turf. So, tell me Kohaku Kobun, just what is stopping me from feeding you to Tindalos?" He paused for a moment before his expression took on a happy mannerism. "That's my dog by the way," he said gesturing to the Shiba Inu. "I have no idea how the name Tiny came around but he seems to like it."

"Please, my elderly mother…" Kohaku started only to be cut off once again.

"I've got it all Boss," the man, Ears, said calmly. "It's the Yakuza. They're the ones who've been dealing in this shit."

"The Yakuza," their boss said looking thoughtful. "Well done Ears. That's certainly some interesting news."

"You want me to go out and bust a few Yakuza heads," Hands said, the well-dressed lady sounding eager to impart some violence.

"Despite how they have waned over the years the Yakuza are not a small-time gang," the boss said walking up to his chair and sitting down again. "And while we recently have several things going for us, we are unfortunately still a small-time gang." He looked thoughtful for a moment before he turned to Ears. "Think we can get anything more from him?" he asked dispassionately.

"I can only try," Ears said dispassionately as he walked out towards Kohaku.

"Wait, I'll talk," Kohaku said, feeling fear bubble inside him and realising that they had already got the information and that the Yakuza would likely come after him anyway.

"Handle it as you see fit Ears," the boss said as he strode away. "I'm going to have a little chat with Brain. Maybe ask her for some advice on our Yakuza problem."

"Good luck boss," Ears said. "Goodbye Tiny," he said addressing the dog that followed the boss from the room. The two of them left Kohaku's field of vision and after a moment the man's expression changed. "Restrain him Hands," he said.

"Okay, okay," the girl said and Kohaku suddenly found his entire body held still by near crushing force. "I don't know why you're so strict on me Sessho. The Boss doesn't seem to mind."

"Codenames when on the job Hands," the man, Sessho, said sharply. "Boss does care about this place and the rules associated with it and he's being very generous in showing you slack. Do you want to disrespect him after all that he's done for us?"

"No," Hands said after a moment and there was some regret in her tone. "My apologies Ears," the girl said with renewed determination. "I'll step up my game; starting with this interrogation."

"That's all I can ask Hands," the man said and there was some pride in his voice. "Now on to you," he said with some disgust as he declared looking at Kohaku.

"I'll tell you everything," he said flinching at the malicious look in the eyes of the well-dressed man.

"Yes, you will," Ears said with a wicked grin. "That was never in doubt. The only question is: How intact will the police find you." And as he reached down to touch Kohaku and the force around his body tightened; Kohaku for the first time since his parents had died simply broke down and cried.

Xxx

"Thanks Brain," Midoriya Izuku said as he placed his cell phone in his pockets on his walk home through the streets of Musutafu. Even in the middle of a very important meeting she still managed to make time to send him a message indicating she would look into it. Brain or 'Sakura Algernon' as she liked to be known was his right hand in the Living Tree gang and probably amounted to over half of what made the group successful. It wasn't easy to make a living out of crime, especially when you refused to indulge in two of the biggest sources of revenue, namely drugs and human trafficking. Still nobody in the gang was poor as a result of the business and Brain successfully made sure that each one of them had a hefty sum of legal assets to their name.

Looking back at today the newest member of the group didn't do to poorly. Hands was (mostly) professional, eager to learn and showed a good amount of devotion to the Living Tree. Compared to those traits minor issues such as her inability to use her new Quirk, her clumsiness, and lack of experience were easily able to be worked around. So far the recommendation from her brother was more than accurate and he was more than satisfied that the work that he put into her upgrades.

Izuku pulled out his phone again intending to tell his mom that he would be a bit late today when a slight scraping noise alerted him that he was not alone. Normally this minute audio clue would be dismissed by most people as irrelevant or ordinary but he didn't get to where he was today by letting his guard down. Firming his grip upon his baseball bat he leapt to the side pushing off with the hard ground a second before a wave of noxious smelling gunk landed in the spot he was standing in.

"Is this an attack by a villain," Izuku muttered to himself. "I haven't seen him before. I wonder which one of my enemies has paid him to target me. Are we going go through a gang war again," Izuku said his green eyes hardening in determination. Gang wars were mostly bad for business, but could open up a great number of opportunities if cards were played right. Not to mention they were very exciting allowing him to observe a great variety of different Quirks and beat up their wielders.

The person who attacked him now had a body of green liquid that looked rather viscous and smelled terribly. Despite the amorphous nature of his body there were clear defined eyes and teeth representing clear weak points. From a brief evaluation Izuku guessed that the enemy would be resistant to physical attacks while likely weak to changes in temperature or other elemental attacks, although it was impossible to tell without an inspection of part of his body.

"You dodged," the man/woman/other said. "But you can't do that forever. Don't worry I'll just be taking your body. It'll be quick." As he said that he lunged forward trying to smother him and Izuku darted backwards just out of range of his lunge taking a closer look at the revolting if intriguing Quirk. That look almost became a lot closer than he wanted as a tendril of slime darted outwards at Izuku's face almost hitting the young gang leader if he hadn't had the sense to tilt his head to the side. In retaliation he swept out with his baseball bat blowing off a chunk of the creatures "flesh?" and watching as the remainder moved to fill in the gaps. He was definitely getting a sample of this Quirk factor. Despite how disgusting it was the Quirk was truly interesting and he itched to reproduce it.

"Just stay still kid and I'll make it quick," the villain said and Izuku was hit by a mixed feeling of irritation and gratitude. By this point it was fairly obvious that this had nothing to do with any of Izuku's activities and he was merely an 'innocent' bystander.

"Interesting Quirk," Izuku said giving a smile that couldn't be seen beneath his mask. "Let's try it out, shall we?" As he said this he spun around the baseball bat, before taking it with both hands and lashing out with a series of heavy blows that tore through him ripping chunks out of his body. While the bat didn't seem to be doing any lasting damage it was certainly helping to tear him apart and Izuku dodged backwards from another rush before spinning the bat around with all the RPM of an industrial fan and tearing the slime creature in two. The criminal collapsed at the force and Izuku strode forward placing the bat right in front of the teeth of the villain.

"Relax kid," those words came from behind him and in the very next second the creature was blasted to pieces and Izuku manually had to adjust his speed of perception upwards. A prickling cold sensation touched his skin as he was overcome by a hyperawareness that caused him to kick up to 110% combat readiness. There in front of him only a metre or two away was the greatest hero in Japan, maybe the greatest hero in the world. With short blonde hair swept into two tufts, a large smile, and two piercing blue eyes All Might stood there in all his heavily muscled, over two metre tall glory. He was giving him a shrewd, discerning look, but Izuku couldn't really blame him. He did look every inch the gang member after all, that was what he aimed for.

Still that was a fascinating Quirk he had. From a brief inspection it looked like an emitter, but the mechanism wasn't clear. Was it biological, an increase in muscle mass, some form of physics manipulation, was it simply energy or something more esoteric. Without a greater amount of observation it was unlikely he would be able to find out. If he had to place money he would bet it on a sudden release of energy that fuelled the force behind his punch. He had detected a sudden shift when it was released as if the energy of the punch suddenly spiked in that second but it was very well controlled. But if that's the case by what mechanism did the energy draw from; food, sleep, or life force; Izuku had no clue.

"Kid you're mumbling," All Might said giving him a concerned look. "Have you taken any injuries? Should I call an ambulance?"

"He didn't lay a finger on me," Izuku said. "I'm sorry I was just distracted by the fact that the number one pro hero just appeared in front of me. Your Quirk is fascinating."

"Thank you young one," All Might said still with the persistent smile on his face. "Now if you don't mind I have to put away this villain." His words were punctuated by him holding up two bottles of soda that he promptly drained on the floor.

"Let me help," Izuku said taking a bottle. He wanted to help and also take a close look at this villain. Despite taking a blow from All Might and being scattered all over the criminal was still alive and Izuku eagerly scooped the majority of the goop into the bottle (only taking a small sample for future analysis). In under a minute the two bottles were filled with the gunk and All Might was holding them both in his bag.

"Thank you very much for your help," All Might said apologetically. "I try not to make errors like that but it seems you were able to do well against him. You are very strong for your age and despite your manner of dress you look like you could be a great hero."

"Thank you All Might," Izuku said despite his current lack of intention to become a hero. It was nice being acknowledged by the strong. "I really admire how you use your Quirk. It could not have been easy to control something that powerful." Izuku really, really, really wanted to know how his Quirk worked; maybe get a blood sample or something.

"Years of training and practice," All Might said, giving Izuku a discerning look that he barely picked up, before he turned and walked off a bottle in each one of his pockets. "Now I'm sorry to cut this conversation short but I have to turn this fellow over to the authorities and I have no time to waste."

"Farewell All Might," Izuku said looking at the man that he might eventually have to fight one day. As a villain he and the heroes would always be separated by that fine line that is called the law. Still something felt off with the hero and Izuku waited the mandatory thirty seconds as All Might disappeared from sight before he called his backup.

"Tindalos come out," he said watching as the Shiba Inu appeared from seemingly nowhere. "Follow him," Izuku instructed and he watched as the little dog morphed into something that would have been horrifying for virtually anybody else. He stepped forward watching as the maw of his beloved pet opened up allowing him to enter into the mouth and falling into blackness as the jaws snapped shut.

The Quirk using dog shrank down to less than a metre in size before he disappeared into one of the many corners of the street.

xxx

"All Might is gravely injured," Izuku said to himself as he sat down on his bed in his pyjamas, noting how strange those words leaving his lips were. To many people All Might stood as an unrivalled, invincible existence and yet as he looked through gaps in teeth Izuku was able to see the horrifying truth. All Might would not be getting better. At least not with any Quirk that he knew was registered. An overwhelming disappointment overcame Izuku at this point. He guessed at one point he fancied facing against All Might in a final fight to display the full power of the Living Tree. That would likely never happen now.

For a brief moment he thought of undertaking Quirk research to find a way of curing All Might but he quickly stamped down any thoughts in that direction. As great as All Might was, he was still a hero and only a fool would empower his enemy too much. Besides if All Might the hero of the people and the No.1 hero couldn't be cured by the full resources of the Hero Commission then what could he do?

Izuku lay down on his bed; grateful that he didn't have to go to school tomorrow. Brain had figured out of a way of that cesspit when he expressed his desire to leave. School was not pretty for those that were perceived as Quirkless and it had taken years for his Quirk to even show itself due to its innate complexity. Apparently his Quirk was originally a mutation being unrelated to his father's fire breathing and his mother's control over small objects.

"Still we got quite a haul today," Izuku said. "Didn't we Tindalos?" His faithful friend appeared from one of the corners of the room before leaping up on Izuku's lap panting joyfully. "I got a lot of information about that Slime Villain, but the real prize is All Might." He pulled out a plastic container with a few drops of blood on it. "I'll ask Brain to see if she can analyse the genetic sequence relating to his Quirk. Can you believe that All Might's Quirk is a stockpiling Quirk? I never would have expected that but it's obvious with how his body bulges up with energy and when he relaxes it causes damage. I still don't know what kind of energy he taps into but it is interesting. I'll send the documents to Brain and ask her to give me her second opinion."

Suddenly Tindalos perked up just a few seconds before the door to Izuku's room swung open and Inko Midoriya, his mother, walked in. His mother was a housewife who had raised him when his father left to take an overseas job and had been the most important person in Izuku's life for a long time.

"Hi Mom," Izuku said offering her a casual greeting. "What's going on?" He idly realised that she looked to have lost a good few pounds over the last few months; a good thing considering her propensity to stress eat. Well Izuku had been keeping a firm lockdown on information on his actual activities. From what she knew Izuku was an intern in a new pharmaceutical company (which was technically true for tax purposes) and he was going to attend the general course in U.A. (also true, the thought of getting a look at those Quirks up close caused him to salivate).

"Your Dad's on the phone," Inko said smiling at him as she handed him her cell phone and he returned that smile. His dad had been calling more recently these last few years for some reason. He lived overseas in America for many years working on behalf of some banking company and sent back monthly routine deposits that provided more than enough to live on. Honestly despite not seeing his father for a long time he held no ill will towards the man. Everybody had their own dreams and despite his goals of working up the corporate ladder he still provided enough money for him and mom to live a comfortable life. Izuku wasn't sure what choice he would ever make if he had to choose between his dream and family.

"Hello Izuku," the voice of his father said as he placed the cell phone to his head. His father always did that. As quiet as he thought he was being, his father always seemed to sense when he was there.

"Hi Dad," he replied. "How's work going on."

"Nothing has really changed," his father replied. "I've been quite busy mentoring recently and I'm delegating a lot of tasks to my protégé now. I've got the work down to such a fine art that sometimes it seems that I hardly need to do anything. But don't tell my company that," he said playfully. "You wouldn't want them getting rid of your father now."

"Your protégé," Izuku murmured. "Is that the childish one you've been talking about? The videogame one?"

"That's precisely that one," Izuku's father said. "Still despite his immaturity I can see the potential. Maybe some day when you have underlings you will see it to."

"I think I already do," Izuku said thoughtfully. "You know my work at the pharmaceutical company father. I have this co-worker and they're new and they're honestly a bit clumsy and they still don't know what they are doing. Still the boss thinks that those are all temporary problems and eventually they will go away but their good qualities won't."

"Seeing talent is a good skill to have Izuku," his father said with interest. "Maybe I can give you a few tips sometime; convey a little bit of the things I've learnt on the job. Then you can soon be the boss that sees the potential in the new hires."

"That sounds nice Dad," Izuku said. The two of them chatted for a long period of time probably racking up pretty hefty phone bills. Still it wasn't as if his father would not pay them.

"I head you are applying to the U.A general course," his father said after half an hour of speaking. "Have you not thought of going for the Hero course. You used to love heroes when you were younger."

"I'm afraid I will have to disappoint you," Izuku said unapologetically. "I grew up. The general course offers one of the best educations in the country and I won't have to break my bones to survive it. Besides I can still look at the cool Quirks from the general department."

"There are always some really interesting Quirks coming out of the hero course," his father agreed with him. "Still it is perhaps better that you don't try for the hero course. The Quirk you inherited from your mother is really not suited for combat."

"It is rather useful in getting things off the shelf," Izuku said. "Unfortunately, I don't think I've inherited your height."

His old man laughed at that and the pair spoke for another few minutes before his father hung up for the night, but not before wishing him well. His father had never displayed much appreciation for heroes, a feeling Izuku could sympathise with. From his experience most heroes were eminently disappointing and deserved in no way to be put on the pedestal that they were placed upon.

Still All Might was pretty cool today and Izuku could easily see how his attitude got him plenty of fans. Unfortunately he couldn't afford to look up to him. He couldn't afford to start liking the heroes and start rooting for them because if that were to happen then one day he would be blinded by his admiration and he might go too easily or act too slowly and then his dream would amount to nothing.

Izuku Midoriya had long sworn to himself to become the No. 1 villain in the world. That night he went to bed with visions of a vast empire run by loyal companions that looked up to him with respect and admiration.

**Author Note: Yes, yes I wrote a new thing. I'll try to finish off the old.**


	2. Chapter 2

If you were to ask a resident of Japan to name some famous large corporations then AlpexZentris Pharmaceuticals would probably not feature on the list. Instead your typical resident of the Land of the Rising Sun might mention half a dozen other companies that were instead, unbeknownst to them, owned by AlpexZentris. The Akamine family had controlled their corporation with an iron fist, keeping it within the family for generations, the only outsiders being low level grunts or managers recruited from one of their branch families. The resulting system led to a melting pot of infighting and family politics the likes of which Izuku had never seen before he poked his nose into it and promptly made a mess of it.

The teenager in question was currently walking up to the head office of AlpexZentris in a well-made three piece suit looking for all the world like your average salaryman if it wasn't for two specific factors; namely his age and the fact that he looked about as comfortable in a suit as a bull in a china shop tea tasting ceremony. Still these kinds of suits were required if you wanted to work in a prestigious corporation, even if your work in question was merely that of an intern.

Izuku swiped his card across the entrance to the building, a relatively innocuous five storey office amongst soaring skyscrapers, and the machine beeped a green welcoming. He stowed his card in his wallet before walking inside giving his standard everyday greeting to the receptionist. He proceeded to his office where he was interning under Dr. Furata, a man that didn't actually work there. Apparently, he worked in a building in Okinawa although Izuku had neither been there or met him. So instead of meeting him Izuku instead walked to the office (coloured in a dark green), put down his briefcase, boiled up a pot of coffee and started looking through the data he received since yesterday.

"Interesting," Izuku mused to himself as he looked at the bounty of Quirk related research that he had been given. In the modern error medicine was often required to be more specialised due to the effect of certain Quirks and pharmaceutical companies that provided medicine that dealt with issues that were linked to rare or unusual genotypes or phenotypes were often well subsidized by the government. Therefore, a huge amount of gene sequences and information was collected by these companies for him to peruse at his leisure.

He briefly looked at an odd genetic sequence before a spark of inspiration hit him and he started comparing it to other ice Quirks that he had seen. He then charted essential differences, started isolating similar gene sequences and tried to simulate it using his Quirk. He was unsuccessful in that attempt, most likely due to a lack of first-person interaction so he simply logged onto the website and started observing the videos of the test that was administered upon plotting the genetic code. Apparently, the Quirk allowed the wielder to secrete some icy sleet over their skin and he immediately inspected the code again, this time discerning a variation of the standard insulation to cold that most icy Quirks have built into them.

Izuku had just taken a sip of his coffee and started to pull out the test data when a beeping sound on the office phone indicated that he had a message. He picked up the phone casually listening into it for about thirty seconds before he downed the piping hot coffee, put down the phone and left the office. A short trip up the stairs later (elevators promote a lack of exercise) and he found himself standing in front of his boss's boss's boss's door. He lifted up his hand to rap on the door.

"Come in," the soft clipped voice of his aforementioned ultra-boss before he had even hit the door and he smiled wryly before stepping into the room. The office was much nicer than his, easily three times the size and decked out in a dark blue and gold trim with soft carpets, wall length windows, a large fish tank, a book shelf that covered a good half of the left wall, and over a dozen screens all over the room. It honestly looked like somewhere a supervillain would stay and Izuku found himself immediately envious.

Sitting in the middle of the room behind a large mahogany desk was a young adult woman with plain short brown hair and eyes that were hidden behind glasses. She was adorned in a suit that overshadowed Izuku's own and there was a strict look on her face as she rested her chin atop her clenched hands.

"Which business are we discussing?" Izuku asked the head of his company politely.

"I believe you should start by telling me in detail how your work was going on the Quirk analysis," she said calmly. "Then maybe we can talk about other topics."

"Okay," Izuku said briefly before running through a brief summation of all the work he had done recently, the implications of the work he had done as well as upcoming work he was doing. While she didn't need to be involved directly Izuku's presence in the company was non-standard to say the least and while his efforts were probably well worth the cost of his salary they did need to be filtered to abide by the general restrictions of the law, namely his age and lack of a university degree. Legally he shouldn't even be allowed to inspect some of the genetic samples, but when did qualifications ever have anything to do with ability.

"And that's basically it," Izuku finished before he smiled. "Shall we move onto the other stuff now, Brain."

"Okay, Boss," his lieutenant said shaking her head with some amusement. "Although you could at least try to pretend to be excited about the medicine we produce."

"It's a fun side job," Izuku said watching as the CEO of his company huffed in annoyance. It had been a slight difference in opinion between the two of them for a long time. Brain had quite correctly informed him that he could easily sell his abilities to the wealthy Quirkless for a sizeable sum of money. In fact, with the right Quirks and good marketing and legal counsel he could probably make a few billion Yen. Izuku of course disagreed vehemently with that. He didn't want to make a few billion Yen; he wanted to be the number one villain with a vast underground empire. Any money that he would make would be made illegally; well partly anyway.

"How are our finances looking," he asked Brain and the woman simply pulled out a piece of paper before handing it to him to peruse. Judging by this report once again Brain had come in top making up almost forty percent of the total revenue of the group. The sheer number of fingers that she had in the pie was staggering, although she tended more towards white collar crime as well as cleaning and investing the dirty cash that they got from other sources. Coming up behind her was Tindalos who almost single-handedly dealt with smuggling side of the business. Sure, he usually had a handler with him but the dog's ability to sneak illicit goods in and out of Japan created huge amounts of risk-free wealth that elevated him to the second spot.

The rest of the list was fairly unimportant with no other single member bringing in more than ten percent of the total revenue. That was fair enough considering that the document was simply boasting on behalf of his friend and right-hand man and Izuku could see her puff up her modest chest in pride at her work. Well she had a right to be proud. Sakura Algernon was the single greatest investment that Izuku ever made and he would have come nowhere as far without her. Despite her disagreement with his villainous dream and her exasperation at his childishness she had still supported him every step of the way and even when he wavered, she had never taken back her support. He owed her more than he could ever repay her and… oh crap he was mumbling again.

Izuku raised his head to see a stoic Brain with only the faintest flush in her cheeks staring at him in a mix of pity and disappointment. She had already mentioned to him how dangerous it was to go blurting out information like that but he had yet to kick the habit. He was about to offer some form of apology when both his and her phones beeped simultaneously. That could only be Living Tree business and it must be urgent if they felt the need to both contact him and Brain. His suspicions were confirmed as he saw four words that caused an icy feeling to rise in his chest.

"Knees has been captured," Brain said looking at her own phone. "That certainly puts a kink in our plans for today."

"How did that happen?" Izuku questioned both himself and the woman opposite him. Knees was one of the stronger members with a Quirk that could put him on the level of many pro heroes. If he had fallen then it would be due to either overwhelming numbers or more powerful and well known members.

"Give me a few moments," Brain said. "I've only just got the information at the same time as you." Izuku nodded, leaning against one of the walls watching his Number Two alternating between phone and laptop tapping keys in an attempt to extract information. "Ryukyu," she said after a moment giving an understanding look.

"The dragon hero," Izuku said. "That will do it. Did he put up a good fight at least?"

"Two minutes," Brain mentioned. "He was completely dominated start to end. He is going to be burning after that."

"I'm almost tempted to say it will be worth it for that alone," Izuku said contemplatively. "That is after we get him back of course."

"That goes without saying," Brain nodded as she spoke. While she could be callous sometimes it was a firm and undisputed rule of Living Tree that no comrade would be left behind.

"Any idea where he is being kept," Izuku said as he walked forward looking over Brain's shoulder at the nascent plans that she had started drafting.

"I know the place and am just compiling a list of all the possible heroes in the area," Brain said bringing up a list that Izuku read through. As they reached the last name both of them paled simultaneously at the obvious problem.

"All Might," Izuku was the first to speak, a frown upon his face. While he had wanted to face the hero someday, that day was not anytime soon. He hadn't fully realised the power of his Quirk or even finished growing yet and he was under no illusions that he could beat All Might as he was now; thankfully beating All Might wasn't the goal here.

"You have a plan boss," Brain said as she continued to look through data. "I can tell you have that smug look on your face."

"That's my normal face," Izuku protested before smiling smugly. "Hey Brain, what are the chances that we could sneak Tindalos in and he could swallow him and teleport out."

"Possible but with a high chance of it going wrong," Brain said calmly. "Apparently Knees put up a good enough fight that they registered him as a C-Rank villain pending B-Rank. The jail that he's in will be locked down until they can cart him off somewhere else."

"A C-rank villain," Izuku muttered to himself before he gave a wicked grin. "Man that's disappointing that he got there before me. Maybe we should go get some matching ranks."

"That basically spells the death of our anonymity," Brain said as she for the first time since the news broke took her eyes off the screen. "Are you sure you want to do that. We have more than enough money from our less spectacular activities. Maybe we can get him out legally or by pulling some strings."

"We knew this was eventually going to have to happen," Izuku said. Brain had always somewhat disagreed with his desire to become the No.1 villain, instead advocating for more subtle means that could always be covered up. "Let's make a splash Sakura."

"Then a new name will be on everybody's lips after today," Sakura said nodding somewhat grudgingly before her look transformed into pure concentration. "And I have just the plan for it."

xxx

"You might as well speak up," the policeman who bore the face of a tabby cat said attempting to loom over him despite being a good few inches shorter than him. "The people you've beat up have claimed that you and others like you have been targeting them for the past few weeks."

"You mean those drug dealers," a young blonde adult with rough features said; looking casual despite the pair or cuffs on his hands and feet. "You're welcome for that by the way. You should have more time in the next few weeks to eat doughnuts and be generally useless," he said trying to lean back only to be confined by some of the chains that bound him to the chair.

"The public takes a harsh stance on vigilantism," the cat-faced man said slamming down his hands on the table.

"For the public to take a stance on anything requires the public to actually have a spine," the man said flicking at one of his green earrings. "And I object to the vigilantism. I wasn't enacting justice; I just wanted to beat up some punks."

"Do you think this is funny," the cat said in something vaguely approaching disbelief. "Just who do you think you are?"

"Do I find this funny," the blonde adult said. "No I do not. I do not find my failures funny. Quite frankly the fact that I got knocked unconscious is really pissing me off." He clenched his fists at that thought, a flash of self-directed rage on his face.

"Alright kid," the cat said once again. "I'm going to ask you one more time. What is your real name?"

"Listen up here you pus…" the man begin and then stopped before a grin overtook his face. "I told you for the last time my name is Knees."

"I've had enough…" the man started before he swayed once, twice and then landed on his knees.

"I do just love the smell of roses," Knees said as he stood up from the chair and the cat-faced man watched in disbelief as he stood up, his muscles straining as the cuffs around his wrists snapped.

"You couldn't wait a few more seconds Knees," a robotic sounding voice started and the sound of clinking metal sounded as the vent burst open and a stream of steel parts fell into the room before recombining into the form of a young petite purple haired girl who gracefully landed on the table separating cop and criminal.

"Sorry Muscles," Knees said looking shamefacedly at the girl that was nearly half his height. "I guess I got a bit over eager. Nose is with you?"

"We've got a few people here," the girl called Muscles said. "Alarms are tripped so security will definitely be on the way. The boss is also collecting something at the same time," she said winking at her comrade.

"Oh shit it's really our debut," Knees said with a wide smile before it faded. "And I had to kick it off in such a shitty way."

"There will be plenty of heroes coming out of the woodwork at the moment," the girl said as she walked up to Knees before swiftly breaking apart the remains of his restraints. "Your debut starts now."

"Then I better make it a good one," Knees said as he walked up past the cat-faced man that still had no control over his limbs and stepped up to the door. Drawing back his fist he swung a punch at the door, a blue burst of energy coalescing into a force field in front of his knuckles the instant before it hit the door causing the minor obstruction to snap in half and send pieces of wood all across the hallway.

"It was unlocked," Muscles said before she shook her head. "It's good to have you back Knees." The two of them walked out of the interrogation room and into the corridor before Muscles led him to the entrance, the smell of roses growing stronger all the time until they stepped into the lobby and saw a scene of bloodless carnage.

"Really letting down the squad Knees," a dandy looking man in bright in colourful clothes and a rainbow mask said as he doffed his top hat at Muscles who giggled. "Honestly I would be embarrassed to call myself one of the stronger members of the gang at this point. Don't you think that if it was Her then the Dragon would have been beaten and we wouldn't have to stage this whole thing."

"I know," Knees said after a moment's silence. While he had briefly felt a burst of rage it had cooled down swiftly. "You don't have to encourage me Nose," he said clenching his fist. "I'll get stronger. I'll be so strong that nobody will dare to take on the Living Tree while I'm around. Now let's get out of here. The smell of justice is making me nauseous."

"Actually the smell of this place is just making me hungry," Muscles said as she opened the door and froze at the crowds who thronged the streets. There were at least a dozen heroes and swarms of policecars that were likely out on the job when they raided the station. "Wow we really kicked the hornets' nest this time," she said closing the door just as the police started to speak. "Any other entrances we can take?"

"No we're going out that entrance," a familiar voice spoke up from behind them and the three of them turned back to see their Boss walking towards them wearing a green trenchcoat with a hood. On his face was a white mask and he wore green gloves that prevented anybody from figuring out his identity. In his left hand he held a bat made out of titanium that was much larger than his usual wooden one.

"Woah Boss, dressed for the occasion," Muscles said looking somewhat impressed.

"I still think you should have chosen a more muted colour Boss," Nose said greeting his immediate superior.

"Boss I'm sorry," Knees said only to be waved down immediately.

"Don't apologize for giving me such a perfect stage to make my debut," Boss said as he walked up to the door and kicked it open causing the door to go flying into the mass of police. It didn't impact as wooden branches grabbed it out of the air and launched it back at the Boss of Living Tree. He didn't even have to move as Knees stepped in front of him and with a single punch obliterated the door.

"Huh, Mt. Lady is here as well," Muscles said. "How the hell did I miss that?"

"It is quite the oversight," the Boss of their group said. "Alright I surrender," he said putting up his hands causing a silence to fall over the group. "Nah I'm joking. Hit 'em Muscles."

At the signal Muscles body broke open revealing rows and rows of guns and other weaponry that discharged at the remainder of the group. Every bullet shot was rubber and every missile shot contained non-lethal gases but none of the police or heroes knew that and Knees could see eyes widen in panic as the police and heroes were peppered with non-lethal but painful attacks instantly mowing down the fodder.

Branches rushed at the mechanical gang member and Knees interposed himself striking down at them with fists, elbows and knees. His force fields may be relatively short ranged but at pure defence they were surpassed by few Quirks. Seeing an opening he ran at Kamui Woods trying to strike get into melee range but to no avail as the hero moved backwards and he had to focus all his energy into just preventing the wooden limbs from wrapping around him. To the side he saw Mt. Lady stumbling as she got a good whiff of Nose's perfume. An unaware person would almost always lose against Nose's Quirk but it was easily countered once the mechanism was discovered and the target was aware. Dimly he took in the sight of the large hero placing her hand over her nose before lunging down trying to catch the villain who calmly evaded her.

He firmly focused on his fight now twisting his hands ninety degrees he started to attempt his new method of attacking, transforming the angle of the force field as it hit to try and employ cutting force. It was a mixed bag as the force field cut partway into the limbs causing them to disgorge sap but the momentary triumph caused him to become distracted and a limb wrapped around his leg. He was flung to the ground hard and he felt the wind knocked out of him before more tree limbs started to wrap around him and he was forced to struggle against the bindings.

The limbs slackened and Knees saw Kamui Woods stumble as he was hit by a rebounded rubber bullet. That rebounded bullet was apparently spotted by Muscles as the demon girl took that opportunity to unload a wave of ammunition to the pro hero who was forced to dive for cover. That's was right, even if he didn't win the fight then the boss was still in the reserves and Muscles could always join in. Maybe not, he contemplated as he saw one of the remaining pro heroes leap towards Muscles and for the girl to break off her barrage against Kamui Woods and draw out a Taser from her body.

Knees stopped looking at this point to refocus on his own fight with the tree hero, briefly appreciating the irony of fighting him first when their gangs name was Living Tree. He took a deep breath before he jumped slightly slamming his feet against force fields that materialised from the ground and propelling himself forward like a rocket. Branches came at him from each direction trying to encircle him but he used the extremities of his body to change course during fight, missing by metres then centimetres as he got closer and closer. Barely a metre from the hero he was forced to cross his arms in defence as he was hit by a branch causing him to stumble backwards before he rammed his feet back against the suddenly appearing force fields and launched himself forward with double the speed. This time the wooden hero was prepared and he retreated backwards as Knees launched himself forwards into melee.

Kamui Woods seemed to not want to be at that range and he retreated backwards throwing branch after branch at the rapidly advancing Knees who was lashing out with every limb to crush the hero, but it was rapidly becoming a battle of stamina when the Boss wanted it to be a show of crushing force. He couldn't keep his focus on the other battles but from what he could see Nose hadn't yet beaten Mt. Lady either. 'I'm sorry boss,' he thought as he strode forward throwing punch after punch but not able to tie down the illusive hero. 'I'm currently failing you.'

"Don't worry Boss I'm here," a loud familiar voice broke Knees train of thought and simultaneously Kamui Woods caught him with a branch that knocked him a dozen metres back. Still it didn't matter so much at the moment considering that the strongest member had now arrived. With her here the Living Tree would definitely get their prized introduction.

Unlike before where he advanced he now backpedalled trying desperately to get away from the collection of heroes and public servants that were opposed by them and he wasn't alone. Nose had turned and fled as soon as he heard the voice, the dandy villain grabbing his hat as he ran full speed and Knees caught the smell of gooseberries and felt his own velocity increase.

The next second police, heroes as well as the cars, roads and nearby buildings were all pelted by hundreds and hundreds of water droplets. Everywhere the water hit crystals of ice sprouted out and in few seconds the entire area was drowned in a layer of ice. Knees tore his eyes away from the frozen form of Kamui Woods to look at the new arrival. Standing on top of the police station was a youthful looking woman who stood over seven feet with white hair and blue eyes. She wore a silver eye mask and a crop top and short pants that exposed tanned abdominal muscles that made him feel rather inferior.

"Don't worry boss," Sudor said as she looked down at the scene of carnage she caused, or up in the case of the frozen Mt. Lady. "The freezing is harmless. The sun will thaw them out in an hour, tired but uninjured."

"That's great Sudor," the Boss said looking almost offended for a moment. "You almost succeeded in stealing my debut, but the key event has not yet started. Tindalos," he said looking at his dog that just appeared from somewhere in the police station. "I want you to take everybody back to the HQ now."

"But…" Sudor replied looking quite irritated that the fun was ending so soon.

"Now Tindalos," the Boss said cutting out any thought of resistance from the rest of the Living Tree. The Shiba Inu disappeared immediately and was instantly replaced by a two metre tall monstrosity that grabbed Muscles in his jaws before leaping into the nearest angled spot and disappearing. Knees took this time to observe the boss and noticed that there was a significant indication of nervousness from his demeanour. Nose was the next to disappear, grimacing before he too was swallowed by the enormous dog and disappeared, leaving only Sudor and the Boss with Knees.

"Boss about the…" he started only to be cut off.

"He's here," the Boss said grimly and in the next second massive four part jaws snapped closed around him, a flash of blue, red and gold was the last thing that he saw before the blackness consumed him.

xxx

Izuku Midoriya was terrified and he displayed that by clutching his bat with force that nearly bent the hard steel weapon. He had derided what he was doing as suicide just a few days ago and his confidence hadn't grown during that time. What he was going to do what thought to be impossible and would drag him to the forefront of public consciousness, a place he was probably not ready for at the moment. Still without pressure it was hard to improve and he still had a heck of a long way to improve.

As the battles between his subordinates and their opponents raged he started to re-examine his power. His Quirk was called Mother Tree of Life although he was thinking of changing the name. It allowed him to gather visual information as well as data, blood samples and genetic codes and construct a mental replica of a Quirk over hours and hours of mentally draining simulations. Only then could he produce a replica of that Quirk gathered from the combined data. This 'tree' of data gave birth to a 'fruit' Quirk that he could pass onto a person in which case it would root itself in their genetics and adapt to their body or he could devour it himself. This procedure would momentarily grant him a quirk for between zero and five minutes depending on factors such as power of Quirk, stability and how much he exerted it.

The process was even more insanely complex than it sounded and he had expended hours and hours of planning and producing Quirks for this one minor confrontation. Brain and Ears had also cooperated in getting the timing right by using a series of muggings and purse snatching to divert the main opponent of this showdown. A beeping from his watch indicated that he had less than a minute and he immediately slammed down his wandering mind-set focusing on the ten quirks in his mind. It was only then that he looked up noticing that the whole street had become a glacier and he looked for Sudor seeing her standing on the police station.

"Don't worry boss," the strongest member of Living Tree said smiling down at him. "The freezing is harmless. The sun will thaw them out in an hour, tired but uninjured."

"That's great Sudor," Izuku said feeling a momentary spike of annoyance that she was overshadowing him on his own debut before he quashed it knowing there was a very good reason he hadn't gone all out yet. "You almost succeeded in stealing my debut, but the key event has not yet started. Tindalos, I want you to take everybody back to the HQ now," he said to his loyal dog. He didn't really want the heroes to know that he had a teleporter on his payroll.

Knees tried to object but Izuku wouldn't allow any of them to stay on the field. If he had his way then he too would be nowhere near this place right now and he found himself visualising his quirks as a method of coping with the stress. The stress faded as Muscles, then Nose disappeared and he was finally starting to get a handle on it when the No.1 hero appeared.

It was almost anticlimactic after all this build up. One moment the streets were empty and covered in ice and the next the Symbol of Peace was standing on a nearby building. There was no smile on his face as he saw the scene of bloodless carnage beneath him instead being replaced by a look of sheer concentration. He was incredibly intimidating as he stared down the remaining pair and Izuku felt his anticipation rise as he pressured the two of them by just standing there.

"They're still alive," Izuku said frankly. Despite his desire to be a leader of the greatest gang he had no desire to be viewed as an indiscriminate murderer. "Get behind me Sudor," he said simultaneously activating the first Quirk he selected. It was called Overclock and belonged to a former Chinese hero before he became unable to use it. His blood was still being studied by Alpex as a result and Izuku had long since synthesized it.

The world slowed down to a crawl just as All Might began to move and Izuku activated the other nine Quirks simultaneously. His right arm bubbled and boiled and flesh moulded into the image of a large green Eastern dragon to bring this whole event full cycle. The dragon's mouth opened up even as All Might leapt from the building to the floor, blisteringly fast even as time slowed down to a crawl. Without this Quirk Izuku would have been unable to react in time to even defend himself. All Might charged forward and Izuku tracked him with the dragon's head even as the inside of the dragon's mouth glowed with a harsh light for a bare instant before a beam of white tore out from its mouth; the product of eight emitter Quirks releasing their output simultaneously.

The world turned white briefly and Izuku felt his mutated arm take the backlash from the explosion, rupturing even as the vitality in the cells was forcefully drawn out and converted into pure energy. His body hardened into a form of armour as the residual backlash from the explosion nearly burnt him to a crisp. He refused to stand there any longer though because he had too much respect for All Might as a hero to believe that such an attack would defeat him. Instead if it weren't for the frozen heroes behind him he would have likely dodged the attack in its entirety.

His prepared Quirks started to crack and break and so instead of pressing his luck further he flung himself backwards simultaneously grabbing Sudor and felt the jaws of his faithful companion close around him. When next he opened his eyes again he was stepping out of the mouth of his companion and into the somewhat crowded HQ.

He stepped out into a circle of relieved looking faces and smiled as he took in his home; once again with all its members. 'Brain, Tindalos, Muscles, Knees, Nose, Ears, Hands, Sudor,' the HQ felt full as the majority of the Living Tree was home for once in a long time. Brain especially looked happy to see him and then her smile faded and the focus of her look changed. Feeling somewhat confused Izuku looked down and he spotted drops of red blood upon the left sleeve of his trench coat.

Knowing that they were not his Izuku raised his arm in triumph, his wrist a symbol containing priceless trophies.


	3. Chapter 3

"That's unbelievable," Izuku mused as he gazed upon the genetic information extracted from All Might's DNA. During his time analysing Quirks and their associated factors he had stumbled across hundreds of quirks, each with their own unique sequences but he was usually able to see patterns in the cluttered madness. This one was a fire quirk, this one was a strength enhancer and that was a mutation quirk. By looking longer he was even able to work out the portion of the body it mainly affected or even divide the Quirk factors into their various functions. However the term 'usually' didn't apply when talking about the downright fantastic quirk that All Might had.

He was correct when he originally anticipated that All Might's Quirk had an element of stockpiling attached to it but it was the strangest stockpiling Quirk factor he had ever seen bearing little resemblance to every other genetic sequence he had examined. Furthermore and extremely worrying was that All Might's Quirk bared every resemblance to a merged quirk. This didn't refer to a child baring aspects of their parent's quirks but a person obtaining two Quirks somehow and them combining.

The only reason that he knew of these instances at all was that he had a few of them in his own organisation and he was directly responsible for their creation. The fact that All Might's quirk may have had the same origins was… worrying. He had already asked Brain to look up All Might's history but so far she was unable to get any solid details causing his interest to deepen. Taking his eyes off the collated data for a bit he decided to take a break and turn on the small television on the side of his office.

Even almost a week later they were still the hottest thing on television. There were countless heroes and other experts who broke down everything from the five minute clip. Unfortunately even with the ultra-slow-motion cameras on the scene that last blow between All Might and him too quick to be properly seen. A single frame of his arm morphing into a dragon, an instant of movement from All Might to block the emerging beam of white light; these few frames were all that they were focusing on and boy did they focus on them. Even Sudor's casual takedown of everybody else was overshadowed by that clip of a fraction of a second. Apparently if the beam hadn't been blocked by All Might then at least six blocks would have to be written off the street maps.

As a result Izuku had been made an S-Class criminal and Sudor had been recorded as an A-Class. The remaining trio of Knees, Muscles and Nose had been all recorded as B-Class. The Living Tree was firmly on the map and on the tongues of the public. Some were even calling him an evil rival to All Might but while Izuku had faith in his own potential the day that he could rival that guy was still a long way away.

An interview with All Might was next and Izuku tuned into it to try and see if the No.1 had any analysis on the brief exchange but it wasn't to be. There were a few deep probing questions regarding All Might's inability to stop him which was quite frankly a laughable position indicating the standard uninformed nature of anybody outside the hero/villain business. He had already defeated the other heroes before All Might got there, evacuated the rest of his gang, arranged his quirks to output the maximum power and then escaped using a warp Quirk. That exertion had barely left above the strength of a Quirkless human for a few hours as he tried to get his tree Quirk to produce more fruit Quirks.

It quite frankly made Izuku more than a bit irritated that people were judging All Might for failing after none of them could have pulled off the same performance. Even Sudor, the absolute monster, would have had to run when he brought out that much power although she would probably be back to kick his ass when she returned from the blast radius. Annoyed, Izuku carefully typed out his findings for the day before placing them on a flash drive and then whistling.

A second after he did so Tindalos in his miniature form appeared from under his desk leaping up onto his lap before reaching up and showering his face with doggy kisses. He reciprocated petting the dog on the head and back for a while before he handed him the flash drive and told him to take it to Brain. Job for the day done he decided to go out and train with his quirk, not for the purpose of creating new Quirks, but for trying to extract more from the fruit Quirks without them crumbling. He decided to take a bus to the local beach, a place that he hadn't gone to for quite a while, not since he first got his job at Alpex.

It looked just as disconcertingly dirty as always with heaps of trash and broken items. The detritus of a modern civilisation seemed to collate and conglomerate around this particular beach. He shrugged off his jacket placing it on a nearby oven before he reached for the most familiar quirk and the first quirk he had ever created. He stretched out his hand and summoned up that quirk for the first time ever trying to control it and drag a nearby fridge closer to him. The progress was clunky and slow but eventually he managed to drag it out of the beach and to a nearby dumping area.

Still he had barely gone five minutes when the fruit Quirk began to tremble and he redoubled his concentration even as his quirk cracked and tore trying to keep using the quirk even as he focused all of his attention on Attraction of Small Objects, except that name was really inappropriate in those circumstances. The Quirk had been massively modified by him by this point but the truth was that his mother just did never use it to its full potential. Izuku took a deep breath as he tried to hold the quirk together as the cracks grew worse only for the quirk to break as he lost concentration for an instant.

He sighed in irritation as he started creating another instance of his Quirk and pulled the next one digging into it. He ran through fifteen iterations, devouring the fruit Quirks as he worked out moving trash and junk through the sand but any improvements were negligible to the point of irrelevance. Gradually the beach became cleaner and cleaner while his reserves of Quirks dwindled into nothing with negligible improvement to show from it all.

Unfortunately while Izuku knew a great bit about Quirks his own one was so unique that he lacked the ability to reference similar samples and figure out how to improve. Shaking his head to get rid of negative thoughts he started creating a batch of new iterations of Attraction of Small Objects knowing that at least the arduous process of producing Quirks had become somewhat quicker over the years.

"Good job cleaning up the beach young man," a voice said and Izuku turned towards the new arrival before his eyes widened into saucers. Standing just a dozen feet away from him was the withered thin form that only Izuku would recognize as All Might. For a moment he felt panic regretting that he didn't bring his bat today before he mentally punched himself. All Might had no idea of his identity and if he did then he wouldn't be approaching him like that.

"It's really more of an out of the way place to train my Quirk," Izuku replied honestly. "I don't really normally like the beach. I can't really stand all this sand."

"It's admirable that you train young man but I should warn you not to use your Quirk so liberally in public," All Might said coughing into his hand for a moment displaying a brief flash of red. "If a hero or a police officer saw you they might have to fine you for illegal Quirk use."

"Do you see any officer or heroes here though," Izuku said with a grin that he concealed swiftly. "What hero would come to this place? Most of them would be too busy chasing down villains or dealing with their own nonsense. Unless you are a hero Mr…"

"Yagi," All Might said. "And I am afraid that I'm not a hero," the No.1 hero lied.

"Well neither am I so unless the seagulls decide to tell on me I will be fine," Izuku said. "Besides you and I are both aware that those laws are applied laxly to the more young students due to the inadequate public facilities used for training Quirks. If a hero was going to come here they would likely give me a warning at worst and a few encouraging words to keep working on my quirk."

All Might frowned at that answer before he nodded in agreement and walked up to Izuku looking at him resting up and recovering his Quirks.

"Have you thought about improving your body," he said inquisitively. "I only ask because you look like you are having trouble and a lot of people forget the fact that Quirks are often physical just as much as mental."

"I do improve my body," Izuku said before he demonstrated this by walking up to a nearby old-fashioned metallic cabinet wrapping his arms around it, picking it up and walking slowly but steadily to the pile outside the beach. When he was finished he hadn't even started sweating despite the heaviness of the piece of furniture. A villain who didn't train their body properly would never amount to anything other than fodder no matter how strong their Quirk was.

"That is rather impressive strength for your age young man," All Might said. "Are you thinking of becoming a hero."

"Call me Izuku," Izuku said. "And no I do not have a desire to become a hero." He paused for a moment before he decided to go ahead with it. "Quite frankly I will admit to not thinking much of the whole profession."

"That's fair enough," All Might said unexpectedly. "If everybody was to become a hero then who would there be for the heroes to save in the first place. That still doesn't explain why you are so eager to train your Quirk if you don't intend to use it."

"Why do people climb mountains, and run marathons," Izuku said shrugging even as he replaced his Quirks. "I assume it is because they can do it. Not everything in life has to be part of some grand design."

"I suppose that is true young Izuku," All Might said nodding along. "But don't you think it is a shame to have power and not use it."

"I am using it," Izuku said gesturing towards the broken and twisted scraps of metal before dragging them towards him. "Besides the reason why the Quirks can't be used is due to the stupid governments laws and if I really wanted to use them I could just immigrate to almost any other country when I hit eighteen."

"They laws have been gradually tightening up in many other countries," All Might said thoughtfully. "I suppose you could always go to America in the end. They have always been fairly liberal about Quirk usage."

"Let's not talk about last resort situations with such blasé," Izuku said half-joking. "Before that situation I would have tried for the government and rewrote the Quirk laws."

"Which ones," All Might said making small talk as Izuku started dragging a fridge with his Quirk, increasing the attraction and feeling out the limits of the Quirk with an unsatisfied look upon his face.

"The 'defence of self' laws," Izuku replied. "What are they if not a tyrannical and impractical piece of literature that was passed by a bunch of fearful morons in the government to prevent the masses from ever rising up in discontent?"

"That sounds a lot like the Meta Liberation spiel," All Might said frowning at Izuku. "You're sounding dangerously close to indicating you believe in their message and I must caution you that that isn't a very popular stance nowadays."

"What can I say but that I have always believed in freedom over peace," Izuku said frankly as he trained his quirk under the heat of the sunny skies.

"Is that why you don't like heroes?" All Might asked curiously as he sat down on the beach to watch him. "Due to their position as symbols of the government?"

"I don't like heroes because they contribute indirectly towards the idolisation of powerful Quirks and the contempt towards the Quirkless," Izuku said frankly. "Every kid with a powerful Quirk is a candidate to be the next All Might and every Quirkless kid is merely an accident of birth; someone who can be written off."

That was Izuku's true feelings. His Quirk had only appeared very late in life and so he had been labelled as Quirkless since he was very young and the world was not kind to a Quirkless boy. It was not a nice feeling; and even today he still held a soft spot towards any Quirkless that he met. In fact despite one notable exception everybody within his gang besides him had started out Quirkless.

"I see," All Might said and Izuku could easily hear a genuine hint of sadness in his tone. "That was…" he paused not saying anything more.

"I'm sure that was not your intent," Izuku replied flatly. "Nor is it your fault. People will draw conclusions and judgements no matter what you say or do. The only thing that you can do is to live your life in such a way that you are satisfied in your actions."

"What are you talking about?" All Might asked a look of growing confusion on his face.

"Do you know I was sort of rescued by All Might a few days ago," Izuku said as another one of his Quirks broke and he gave up on the task in frustration. "I was fighting off an attacking villain when he suddenly jumped out of the sewers and finished him off in one punch. " Izuku looked back, noting a slowly dawning look of comprehension on his face before it turned to horror. "He left in rather a hurry so I followed him after he left and saw a rather interesting sight."

"How did I not notice you," All Might said gritting his teeth in frustration.

"Obviously your Quirk isn't super hearing," Izuku said blithely. "I can actually move quite quickly if properly motivated." As he said that he raised his hand grabbing towards a large fridge, but instead of pulling it towards him he instead pulled himself towards it flying towards the heavy object and landing atop it before sitting down. "Don't worry I am not the kind of person to spread gossip. If I got the stuffing beaten out of me then I would also hate to have it broadcast."

"You…" All Might started before he suddenly bowed deeply surprising Izuku and causing him to fall off the fridge. He scrambled to his feet looking at the hero. "Thank you," All Might said. "I don't know how the public would have reacted knowing that the Symbol of Peace was getting weaker over time."

"Probably not well," Izuku admitted thinking of the possible fallout. "Although I have to say that I cannot really approve of a society that is so flimsy to rest on the shoulders of one man, no matter how broad they may be."

"That is quite a cynical take, young man," All Might said frowning for a while. "But what if a person just needs a small push; to make them believe that everything is okay? If I can save that one person then would it not encourage others to their own acts of heroism? If it is for the purpose of making a society where everybody can smile I will gladly be that symbol and I will gladly shoulder that weight." Every sentence the Pro Hero spoke was brimming with a sense of righteousness and justice and even Izuku felt his cynicism ease somewhat under the charisma of the No.1 hero. He still disagreed of course but he couldn't and indeed didn't want to try and sway All Might to his view.

"So which villain did that," Izuku asked to change the subject only to watch as a reluctant look overtook the Pro Hero's face.

"I would rather not say," he said after a while. "No offense but I really don't know you well enough to get you involved in this."

"Fine," Izuku said. "I don't really want to get involved in this whole cloak and dagger stuff anyway." He brushed the sand off his clothes as he resolved to ask Brain if any more information had come up. "I'm going to go home and think about how to fix the problems with my Quirk. Hope you get better soon All Might."

"Go Plus Ultra, young Izuku," All Might said raising his hand in a fist before he waved goodbye and the hero and villain parted.

xxx

"What did you just say Boss," Sudor said as she paused her workout; hanging by the back of her knees from a horizontal pole two metres off the ground and wearing a set of purple gym clothes. The two of them were inside a warehouse owned by the gang and used primarily for the purpose of training and Quirk testing. For one last time she reached up with her hands to grasp her knees before she pulled herself up fully before flipping off the pole and landing on the concrete floor. "Sorry Boss I thought I misheard you. You said you wanted to spar with me." Her strong accent and lax manner of speaking always made Sudor seem a bit slow to the casual observer but Izuku knew that the strongest member of his gang was anything but.

"I do," Izuku said clenching his fist and displaying a look of determination. "I just can't…"

"You're shaking," Sudor interrupted pointing at his knees which he noticed were vibrating slightly when he looked down.

"That's not…" he started only to see stars as the world spun and went black. A moment later he forcibly opened his eyes to find himself half embedded in the wall. He tried to pull himself out of the wall but all of his muscles screamed in agony and he relented only to feel his throat grabbed and in the next second he was yanked out of the brick wall and held aloft by one hand.

"Keep your eyes on the enemy, Boss," Sudor said as she dropped him to his knees and he winced at the pain of the concrete floor. "Now get up. You've still got a long way to go."

"I think I'm done Sudor," Izuku said only for his legs to tremble as he tried to get up. "Maybe I should take it easy for a bit and do a few push-ups. Maybe start jogging again. I don't think I can survive another punch like that."

"It was a kick Boss," Sudor said her voice alarmingly indignant for not being the one who wasn't nearly punted through the wall. "Come on, success is only ten percent inspiration but ninety percent perspiration. You haven't even built up a sweat yet."

"I think if I take another hit like that I'm going to die," Izuku said struggling to his feet.

"If you die then you just need to stand up again," Sudor said. "Cut it with this half-assed shit or I'll show you the true power of a daughter of an A-Class villain."

"Okay, okay," Izuku said taking one last deep breath in before the dozen Quirks he selected locked themselves into position and his primary Quirk started producing more as a reserve. He crouched down keeping his body low as he activated a few enhancer Quirks bringing his strength and speed up to superhuman levels as he did so. At the same time he activated a mild repulsion Quirk to deflect any moisture coming towards him and prevent him from instantly becoming an ice sculpture. Lastly he kept one nasty little trump card locked away for a surprise for his subordinate that would help him win.

While he was doing this he noted that Sudor had averted her eyes from his and donned a pair of sound cancelling headphones; sensible precautions against a wide variety of quirks, something that he definitely had. Her posture was relaxed but she was clearly standing in such a way that she could respond to that imminent attack. The tension rose as two of the strongest members of the Living Tree stood against each other prepared to attack. The silence stretched for a moment and Izuku shifted his weight forward activating his quirks simultaneously…

Suddenly Izuku heard his cell phone ring from its place on the table on the other side of the room and he raised his hand in the universal symbol of wait causing his icy opponent to instantly come to a stop as he walked towards the communication tool before picking it up. It brought him some amusement to watch Sudor jumping in place with eagerness while he was picking up the phone but he focused on the call as soon as he saw the name of the caller.

"Yes Brain," he said. "What do you have for me?" he said as he heard his right hand woman on the phone. "Yes I have no big plans lately. No I do not have any plans for the Yakuza yet. I'm putting it off for now. I still want you looking into them, but try not risk any trouble for the group."

"Tell Brain to approve my clothes budget," Sudor said in the background.

"Approve Sudor's clothes budget," Izuku repeated dutifully before he lowered the phone. "She said no," he said before he turned away from his pouting companion. "Anything else you wanted Brain. Yes. No I've never heard of them. Really," he said drawing the word out with plain interest. "Yes I'll take her." As he said this he looked towards Sudor who gave him thumbs up. "I'll be the judge of that. I'll bring Tindalos as well and I'll decide when I'm there. Alright, good job Brain." Izuku put the phone down before he slid it into his pocket.

"What's the news Boss," Sudor said as she picked up a towel nearby wiping the sweat off of her body.

"We're meeting with another group of Villains who want to see the man who foiled All Might," Izuku explained solemnly. "It seems my fame is already opening doors," he continued as a grin appeared on his face. "You remember how most of these meetings go down Sudor."

"I'll get my knuckledusters Boss," Sudor said.

"And dress into something more threatening," Izuku said agreeing with his subordinate as he picked up his jacket, previously discarded on a hook on the wall. "I'll take Tindalos with me but I'm going to have a few more people outside. Only you and I will actually be making contact."

"Know anything else about the location," Sudor said as she finished with the towel before drinking deeply from her water bottle.

"Apparently it's a bar," Izuku said as he came to the door of the warehouse. "It's run by some jerk called Shiragaki or something like that.


	4. Chapter 4

Izuku had always believed that there were two people in the world; namely those that made plans and those that didn't. If he were to be pressed to refine his definition a little more he would state that when choosing to undertake an operation half of the people would plan out every little step that would hopefully culminate in their complete victory whereas the other half would waltz into it blind, relying on their quick wits, skills and a bit of luck to see them through. Izuku was overwhelmingly in the former category due to the nature of his Quirk. Since he could do a wide variety of things for a few minutes he had learnt to make those minutes count and select the optimum arrangement of Quirks to fulfil his goal.

The downside of this was that he had to have multiple backup plans or he could end up in the bad situation of bringing the wrong tool for the job. At that point he would have to rely on Tindalos to get him out as fast as possible or the rest of his crew to complete the job. Thus the first few seconds of a confrontation were entirely indicative of how the rest of the fight would go down and Izuku would already whether to skedaddle or not based on that.

"So what's got you in such a state, Boss," Sudor said from her spot next to him as the pair of them were driven to the location of the meeting. Ears was driving them to the location as none of them were old enough to legally drive. Sometimes being a criminal was about knowing when and when not to break the law. "I haven't seen you look this anxious since your preparations just before your battle with All Might. Actually now that I think about it this has been quite a busy month for you hasn't it."

"This is almost as big as my debut," Izuku exclaimed. "Well actually not really," he amended after a moment's thought. "Nevertheless I think my meeting with this Shiragaki has the potential to be very, very interesting."

"I still think it is a bit of a longshot Boss," Ears said from the driver's seat as he met Izuku's eyes in the rear-view mirror briefly. "The connections in my mind are far too tenuous."

"You're reading my mind again Ears," Izuku said more than asked. "Besides Brain agrees with me and you and I both know that she is the most qualified to make these judgments."

"Brain's quirk is not omnipotent Boss," Ears replied. "And even if she was I think that's even more reason not to chance it."

"Can you guys please stop talking over me," Sudor stated with no heat behind her tone. "Just who are we meeting with?"

"We are meeting with an unknown named Shiragaki," Izuku said only for Ears to cough.

"Shigaraki Boss," he said politely but with a hint of a smile that could be seen in the rear view mirror.

"Shigaraki," Izuku said mentally changing the name. "Tomura Shigaraki is his name and as I've stated we have nothing. No prior crimes, no background history, no known associates. Normally, I would have simply made a note at this point and ignored a request of a meeting if it was not for one thing; namely the person delivering it. Tell me Sudor; who do you think is the most powerful villain in Japan?"

"My father," Sudor replied instantly giving the wrong answer.

"And for those of us not blinded by filial piety," Izuku teased her. He was one of the very few who could do this with Sudor and not end up with a fist in his face; or at least if she did it was without any intent to harm him. Instead the white haired girl simply huffed and crossed her arms.

"I'm not going to take this for you," she said. "If your father was a villain we would never hear the end of it. Instead he spends his days in some boring cubicle."

"Hey, he has an office," Izuku half-heartedly replied. "But you're right I suppose. Dad's cool but your dad's career was just a bit cooler," he said before smiling. "Literally and metaphorically."

"If you could stop making bad jokes and start explaining why we are here," Sudor said with a hint of annoyance only for the car to stop at that moment just outside an inconspicuous building.

"Why my dear Sudor," Izuku said smiling deeply. "You and I might just be meeting with a cryptid, an urban legend, a mythical figure among the underworld. Let's hope he shows up."

"Shouldn't we avoid him for now then?" Sudor asked. "If this guy is really as much of a bigshot as you think wouldn't we be serving ourselves up on a platter?"

"As opposed to showing fear and hiding in base," Izuku responded. "Sudor please, f I wanted to take the path of least resistance I would have been a hero. We can't show weakness at this point, and especially not to the supposedly legendary existence hidden beneath Japan's underworld."

"I suppose we can't back off at this point then," Sudor said as she caught Tindalos who chose that moment to pop into existence in the air. I really don't want to do this," she said as she handed off the dog to Izuku. "And your stupid villain worship isn't helping."

"I don't worship villains," Izuku half-lied as he stepped out of the car and breathing in the dirty Kamino air before adjusting his full facial mask and drawing up his hood. "I merely admire and wish to learn from all of my predecessors. Realistically among the larger villain groups conflict between villains proves to be an even greater threat than attacks from most heroes and even more lethal. Knowing that you remember what to do?"

"Be polite and respectful but don't back down and show weakness," Sudor started to recite with an expression that said that she had done this far too many time before. "If conflict looks imminent I will resolve it quickly and with the minimum of damage. Pay attention to the Quirks of the villains and try and see if there are any faces we recognize which will help us judge the standard of the villain group. If things go south then we try to politely leave without escalating. If they escalate we wipe them out then." Those last words were spoken as she finished getting out of the car. She had chosen to go dressed in a black fully armoured bodysuit that had been purchased on the black market for an absurd amount and was customised to take advantage of her Quirk.

"That's pretty much all of them," Izuku said as he stood beside his subordinate dressed in a black tuxedo, a hooded overcoat hanging loosely from his shoulders and obscuring his very unique hair colour. He had planned to dye it multiple times to be more inconspicuous but each time he had pulled back and let it remain as its viridian colour.

With a reassuring smile to his subordinate that she couldn't see due to his full face mask, he walked to the unobtrusive address that constituted his contacts meeting place. Stepping into the room the first thing he noticed was the ambiance. The rather plain but homely atmosphere that was reminiscent of bars rom the eighties and he had always enjoyed watching movies from about that time. Unfortunately he also immediately noticed that the bar was deserted. That was not to say that there were no people but the few persons that were a part of the meeting were villains which set a whole other tone for the meeting.

If the meeting was to take place in an ordinary restaurant with civilian patrons then it signalled that there would be absolutely no fighting and that the tone of the meeting would be civil if not friendly. If the meeting took place in a deserted place then it meant that a more aggressive stance could be taken and a fight might even break out. Even worse was when the building was when the meeting spot was on the turf of one of the villain groups as that often increased the chance that an ultimatum might be issued which was a situation Izuku would like to avoid if possible.

The second thing that he noticed was the quantity and quality villainous occupants of the bar. There were thirteen in total which was by no means a deficient showing of numbers but from what he could see their standards were lacking. He easily recognized a few D-rank villains that committed their own petty crimes like loose sand without the structure of a villain gang. He had encountered them a few times and felt that their abilities were lacking each time.

Izuku placed his steel bat inside the umbrella rack at the side of the door and strode confidently into the room with Sudor a few steps behind her and Tindalos in her hands. Just the three of them constituted the core offensive of the Living Tree and the six or so known criminals would be instantly defeated by them. The unknown persons were a bit of a concern but he honestly did not know every villain that operated in this area so it was not unexpected.

"I have a meeting with Shigaraki," he said politely if coolly showing no sign of eagerness or fear. It was at this point that inevitable eyeing up would start and the introduction that would serve as the basis for this conversation. No immediate hands were raised and Izuku watched as a few of the heads subtly turned towards the doorway into another room of the bar.

"If it isn't the person who landed one on the Symbol of Peace," the voice that came out of the newest occupant was harsh and slightly grating giving him a mildly sinister aura. But the voice was the least interesting about the new person ranking far below his current wardrobe and Izuku found himself wondering if the hands that were clasped around his body were real and if so how he put them on each morning. Were they preserved in some form of mummification, but that would normally that would stiffen the joints up causing… "I would like to enlist your help in our common interests."

"And what are these common interests we have," Izuku said as he gestured to sit down at a table in the middle of the room, Sudor by his side. "I don't even know what your goal is and I don't believe I've submitted a manifesto for the Living Tree." Mist suddenly appeared in front of him and that moment and he tensed minutely before he saw that it was merely a plate of food in front of him. A steak with some assorted greenery and Izuku stuck a knife through it only to imperceptibly grimace at the sight before him. The meat was cooked perfectly well done; ruined beyond any chance of redemption. Next to him he watched Sudor eagerly look at him and he reluctantly activated his poison-detecting quirk detecting that the meat would only disappoint him but not kill him. "Go for it," he said to his companion who dug into the meat, the barbarian apparently finding it rather tasty.

The fact that the food was teleported directly in front of him spoke of a warping Quirk and Izuku took a brief glance throughout the room before spotting a man behind the bar whose head appeared to be composed of the same gaseous substance. Warping quirks were rare and were highly prized by almost everyone. They were not the province of small-time gangs.

"Don't you want to kill All Might," Shigaraki said looking somewhat confused before he composed himself. "You basically waited around to PK him. Then you launched an ambush at him and realised you couldn't beat him so you retreated to power level up your party. Still you did a great job making him look foolish when a bunch of Tree villains left on his watch."

"He showed up and I ran, is the way that the majority of the news stations have spun it," Izuku rebutted. "Most of them have the opinion that it is only a matter of time before All Might takes us down and while I will not let that happen I will also not go looking for trouble before I need to."

"Then why would you go out of your way to attack him in the first place if you didn't want to kill him?" Shiragaki asked in a baffled tone.

"Advertising," Izuku said as he lifted up a fork and dug into some of the greenery on his plate, lifting up the bottom half of his mask to take a bite of the vegetables. It was very rude not to eat what you are given after all. "By showing myself as a formidable threat I establish my credentials giving me more business opportunities as well as meetings; such as this one. We certainly wouldn't be talking if I hadn't put on such a show Tomura Shigaraki. Now then can you tell me why you want to eliminate the Symbol of Peace?"

"Do I need a reason to hate All Might," Shigaraki said as scratched at his neck. "Everything about him is trash. I hate how this shitty society worships him. Why do you care? Wouldn't All Might disappearing make the job safer for you?"

"That's lunacy," Izuku said almost instinctively. "There are plenty of reasons to want to kill All Might and you come up with that flimsy thing." He calmed down and was about to soften his stance when one of the gang members a guy with the head of an alligator stomped forward.

"Why are you even bothering with this guy boss," the reptilian rapscallion said reaching his arm towards Izuku. "He's already admitted he isn't hot shit. Why don't we just get rid of him now?"

"Sudor deal with Killer Croc over here," Izuku said and in the next moment he saw his subordinate salute before she vaulted over the table and landed a kick on the neck of the 'opponent'. A mighty crunch signalled the end of his participation in the nightly discussion and he hit the ground limply. He would live; in fact he would likely be recovered in about a week. Sudor was well aware that blood wasn't to be spilled in these meetings and she was trained enough to know how to disable without killing.

Looks of alarm flashed through the room and the atmosphere became a whole lot more menacing as the collective villains pulled out weapons, activated quirks and got ready to undertake a course of action that would leave them unconscious on the floor. Even then the only action that Izuku took was to allow Tindalos to jump into his lap and fed him a bit of his steak.

The room was tense for a moment and it looked like Shigaraki was going to command the rest of the villains to attack him when he angrily held up a hand to forestall an attack. He glared at Izuku and the young villain leader noticed an expression of hatred on his face before he picked up his fork and knife and furiously started cutting into his burnt piece of beef.

"So then what shitty objective marker would get you to kill All Might," the villain said as he took a piece of the ruined steak.

"If he killed one of my crew or if I thought he was a genuine threat to the Living Tree I would kill All Might," Izuku said noting that his conversant conspicuously kept some of his fingers off his cutlery as he ate. "However, doing this would bring down the wrath of every other hero upon my head. Naturally any one of those situations would mean that I have already failed to an extent. But then again you and I are different in this case Shigaraki." He reached down to the glass next to his plate before realising it was alcohol and retracting his hand. "I wish to create a criminal enterprise so I did. I wish for my gang to grow so I put effort into making sure that it does so. I did not start a gang with the intention of killing All Might; that's a lot closer to the manifesto of a political party or a cult in my opinion."

"And so you refuse to join us," Shigaraki said his manner of speech indicating that he would really like to attack Izuku but he held himself back.

"There is no reason why we cannot collaborate," Izuku said. "Even if I have no particular desire to kill All Might doesn't mean that I cannot help you in your endeavours or you help me in mine. Information, contacts, weapons, backup, all of these things can be shared when necessary. Putting two groups of people together with incompatible ideas will lead to both groups being less effective than if they were alone."

"Will you provide back up against All Might though," Shigaraki said his voice cruel and measured. "From what I've seen you would rather End Battle as soon as he arrives."

"There is nothing wrong with making a measured retreat," Izuku said slightly condescendingly. "I've seen people with convictions and no strength and people with no conviction and strength but this is the first time I'm ever dealing with somebody with no convictions and no strength. I'm trying to keep this amicable kid but you're really trying my efforts."

"Kid," Shigaraki said and Izuku placed down his cutlery tensing for a momentary attack. From what he guessed based on his movements his ability had something to do with fingers. "I'm older than you, bastard." His preparations were not a moment too quick as Shigaraki got out of the chair at this moment and lunged at him with hands outstretched. He was quick, insanely quick and touched based Quirks were almost always lethal at close range so Izuku chose not to hold himself back and restrain his Quirk usage. He raised his hand and a repulsing burst of air shot from his fingertips catching Shigaraki on his chest and flinging him backwards through the bar wall.

He was up in moments and Izuku saw black fog coalesce around him before it was cut off as a massive Tindalos crashed into the bar shattering wood and glass as he chased around the black mist; the pair of them hopping into and out of existence in a manner that would make the casual observer's head spin. To his left Sudor had leapt towards the remaining few and half of the room became a refrigerator as explosions of ice erupted everywhere.

Izuku could devote no time to that as the man with the hands Shigaraki was up again looking no worse for wear despite the fact that Izuku barely pulled that punch. There seemed to be no grogginess as he promptly dodged the plate of food that Izuku threw at him and swept low with his hands outstretched towards Izuku in retaliation. His retaliation didn't connect as Izuku jumped onto the table using it as a springboard to vault over the enemy and then launched another yet of wind from his palms driving him into the ground and using the force to flip himself over and land on another table.

Once again Shigaraki was quick to spring to his feet and Izuku started to revaluate the young man's ability. While he lacked anything of worth strategically and his choice of associates was terrible he was at least physically well off which was at least one major positive amongst his shortcomings. Izuku leapt backwards off the table before he kicked it on its side and sent another jet of air at the furniture forcing it to fly towards the hand-covered villain. It landed square on the villain forcing him backwards but he didn't collapse and Izuku watched in morbid interest as the table started to crumble into dust that fell gently across the ground.

"That's quite the Quirk," Izuku mused. "If it had hit me then I would likely be in serious trouble." In reality Shiragaki had lost when he had inadvertently revealed that it was activated by touch. With that sort of information there was no way he was going to go into melee with him. Furthermore while he could probably take down Shigaraki with time there was frankly no need to. It had already been fifteen seconds since the start of fight.

"Need some help boss," Sudor said wiping away some blood from the side of her mouth. Apparently she had taken a blow in the fight; a dangerous situation in a society with hundreds of potential touch-based weapons; probably caused by her being lazy. "I've taken out like ten guys when you and Tiny haven't even finished one. I think I deserve a raise for that, or better yet a Sudor Point. What do you think Boss?"

"Ten multiplied by zero is still zero," Izuku responded harshly. "Do you want me to give you a raise for remembering to wear pants to work also? Do you want to still continue this," he asked Shiragaki gesturing to all of the thugs on the floor and the monstrous Tindalos who was morphing larger and smaller as he disappeared and reappeared time after time after time in an attempt to maul that illusive fog creature.

"If you think…" the man started only for the world to suddenly darken and the air to grow colder.

"I think that has been quite enough for today," the coldly amused voice sounded throughout the room and Izuku backpedalled to keep both Shigaraki and the newcomer in sight. The man who entered the room did so casually but his presence still dominated the space causing Izuku to feel as if his heart was dunked in cold water. He was tall, at least six foot and clad in an imposing business suit and a full-headed mask just like Izuku only quite a lot more sinister in appearance. His voice might have sounded slightly familiar but then again he might be altering it, just like Izuku did whenever he wore his own mask. He cut his analysis short as logic and instinct told him that there was only one man that this could be.

"All for One, I presume," he said putting on a brave front. "So I was correct in thinking that you were the backer of Shigaraki." By doing that he was attempting to make himself seem better informed and subsequently a less easy target. "So why did you call me here today?" Framing it that way puts both of them on equal standing and while Izuku didn't believe that he could beat him he would refuse to work with a person who wouldn't observe this courtesy.

"It was not I who called you here but my protégé Tomura who wished to recruit you," All for One said as he stepped towards the now stationary Tindalos who was bearing his hackles at the villain. "How rare it is to see an animal with a Quirk," he said with barely concealed interest in his voice. "Can you tell me his name?" he said politely and Izuku raised his opinion of the person who could likely kill the both of them a notch. It was considered provokingly rude to inquire about Quirks and despite the fear that Izuku felt for him All for One had been nothing but polite.

"His name is Tindalos," Izuku said politely.

"As in the 'Hounds of Tindalos' by Frank Long," All for One said immediately and Izuku found himself smile as somebody finally got the reference instead of just lazily calling him Tiny.

"Yeah I was going to originally name him Lockjaw but…" Izuku's voice trailed off.

"He doesn't resemble a Lockjaw," All for One said. "Even if he was originally a pug he would likely not resemble a Lockjaw with that Quirk." He approached looking at Tindalos but not touching him. "I presume you don't want to work for Tomura at this point?"

"Do you even think he wants to hire us still," Izuku said glancing at the inexperienced villain.

"I don't want to," Shigaraki confirmed Izuku's thoughts in a second. "I don't want to deal with allies that join the party with negative relationship values."

"You don't even have a party," Izuku said harshly before he quieted down.

"No, no please speak," All for One said before Shigaraki could. "I've had my eye on the Living Tree for a while and you have been doing quite well. Please can you give my protégé some advice?"

"Alright," Izuku said after a few moments of hesitation. It was a harmless enough request and he had enough genuine respect for the ruler of the Japanese underworld to voice his opinion. There was nothing that Izuku could teach him after all. "First thing you need is loyal competent subordinates. You need people who you are confident in sending on a job and knowing how to get it done or if they can get it done. In other words you need to properly invest in some manpower rather than… that," he said quietly as he looked at the down or unconscious criminals who found themselves on the wrong end of Sudor.

"Second you need to know what your goal is. Knowing what your goal is you need to learn your bottom line, in other words what won't you do; this is something that virtually everybody has and is something that you need to work around. For instance my second-in-command absolutely loathes drugs and I quite dislike them also and so despite the lucratively of the market we refuse to dip our toes into it."

"Thirdly you need to work on your image," Izuku said after a moment. "You can cultivate your image in any direction you want but you need to act somewhat consistently. You can even act in different ways towards different factions. You can be the cold calculating mastermind to the heroes and the supportive leader to your subordinates. Cultivating the appropriate image will increase recruitment, morale, opportunities and builds respect over time if you make your name something worth respecting." Izuku paused for a moment before he decided to just throw it in. "And for the cow's sake at least will you stop ruining the steak. Eating it well done is admitting you wouldn't know good food if it punched you in the nose."

"I can eat it however I like it," Shigaraki said gritting his teeth in irritation. "And what sort of psycho actually enjoys drinking blood."

"It's actually myoglobin," All for One said with some amusement. "I prefer to eat steak blue myself. No," he said shaking his head. "While young Tomura doesn't want to hire you I would like to enlist your services for a job."

"Depending on what the job is the Living Tree will take it," Izuku replied only to see All for One slowly shake his head.

"I'm afraid this job I want you to take is not for the Living Tree but for you," he clarified. "I have some respect for what you have done with your group and thus I would like to hire you to mentor Tomura."


	5. Chapter 5

"I think All Might may be my uncle," Izuku said one day, halfway through the weekly meetings for the organisational higher ups. The location was an old arcade that had gone under a few years ago and had been bought by Brain at Izuku's instructions for a good price. It was not busy most days and constantly ran at a minor loss that was easily eaten by Living Tree's other industries. There was barely even any money laundering done and it would take somebody with a seriously powerful analytic Quirk and a serious fixation on the company to find any wrongdoing and even more to prove it.

These weekly meetings took place on a Tuesday morning at around eight and the arcade remained closed during this time allegedly for staff meetings which obviously didn't exist. Right now the three of the four heads of Living Tree were sitting around one of the dining tables drinking milkshakes prepared by one of the serving robots.

Izuku had timed his announcement perfectly as both Brain and Ears had been taking a sip at the same time and the shock from his announcement had startled them into taking to suboptimal actions. Brain, far quicker in her thoughts had decided to do the less photogenic thing and spray out the milkshake while Ears had inside managed to breath it in leaving him coughing and spluttering. Brain glared at him before she stood up from her chair and walked behind Ears smacking him in his back and performing some form of massage that appeared to work. Twenty seconds later she returned to her chair as the serving robots started to wipe up the mess she had made.

"And what brought about that hypothesis," she said her glare being replaced by a look of interest. "Something in the blood," she concluded. "But we only extract the portion of DNA that has to do with the Quirk factor so you would be unable to perform an avuncular DNA test. Therefore your Quirk must have some sort of similarity with that of the Number one hero."

"Bravo Brain," Izuku said clapping his hands in appreciation at his subordinate's deduction. "That is exactly what happened. As you know I've been devoting a simply unhealthy amount of time in analysing his quirk and I think I am quite close to simulating. Maybe by the start of next month I will be able to do some preliminary testing?"

"I will book it in," Brain said before taking a sip of her milkshake and gesturing in a clear sign that said 'get on with it.'

"Okay," Izuku acquiesced. "There is an eight percent similarity which is a pretty weird number."

"Far too low to be parental," Brain said thoughtfully. "It's also very low for an avuncular relationship but by no means impossible."

"I was unaware that you had an uncle, Boss," Ears said as he relaxed back into his chair.

"Yeah, Dad doesn't talk about him much," Izuku said as he polished off his strawberry milkshake before throwing the plastic into the nearest bin. "I know that the both of them fell out a long time ago and they don't talk much."

"And you suspect that All Might is him," Brain said raising an eyebrow. "I will dig into All Might's history but while I can expect some relationship due to common genetic lineage I doubt that it is as close as to be called familial."

"Cool," Izuku said. "Does anybody have any more topics they want to bring up or can we call this session to a close."

"I happen to have one for you, Boss," Ears spoke up, slightly unusually. While technically he was one of the executive members, he was also the one who initiated the least operations among all of them and tended to be more reactionary, providing his services and expertise to any project but never starting them.

"Well that's something I don't see very often," Sudor said as she walked away from an arcade machine on which a random villain proclaimed his victory over Endeavour. "Finally showing the initiative Ears. What nefarious deeds will you have us pull?"

Ears opened his mouth to announce his plan and was immediately interrupted by the sound of music. After a brief moment Izuku reached into his pocket before pulling out his phone. He flipped it open and walked a brief distance away from the table before answering it.

"Hi Mom," he started. "How are you doing?" He listened for a brief moment. "I'm fine I'm just at work. My boss is a bit of a slave driver." He continued and the rest of the table were treated to the sight of Brain clenching her fist at the blatant lie. "Yeah I'll pick some up after work. I love you too Mom." He returned the phone into his pocket and retook his seat at the table.

"A slave driver, am I?" Sakura said her voice dangerously calm. "I don't want to hear that from the guy who spent all of yesterday morning playing solitaire."

"You really are a dutiful son, Boss," Ears said with a grin on his face that edged towards being slightly sadistic. "If I didn't know you so well I would call you a mother's boy."

"I think I recognized the Anime that song came from," Sudor remarked casually. "Was it…"

"Enough," Izuku said sharply. "Err; we should focus on Ear's plan. Right what was the plan Ears."

"I was collecting some information that could be important to some people," Ears began.

"Right, blackmail," Sudor said as she sat down on her chair and put her feet up on the table. "Never really liked the whole blackmail thing."

"Then it is a good thing that I am in charge of that aspect of the business," Ears said. "To cut a long story short; I know where a veritable bounty of support gear will be for all of this and next week."

"Those generally have high profit margins," Brain said approvingly. "Even if they are never really as effective as when they are fully custom made."

"Zero considering the fact that we are going to be stealing it," Izuku responded offhandedly, getting a somewhat weird look from Brain.

"Not zero after all the business of locating a buyer, setting up a trade, storage, protection and transport," Brain said raising an eyebrow. "This you should know by now, Boss."

"I have a buyer," Izuku rebutted casually. "Our new contact has more than enough desire for these kinds of items and the contacts to dispose of those he doesn't want to keep. I will gladly take a lump sum and leave the rest to him."

"Then that's fine," Brain said turning back to Ears. "Why would there be so much support gear gathered together at once anyway?" she said. "Is what I would say if I didn't know you were talking about that upcoming Hero Support Gear Exhibition in Kyoto. So you have managed to stumble onto the location they are storing the gear." Brain said and Izuku could see hundreds of thoughts flash before her eyes as she paused briefly. "This could prove dangerous but lucrative."

"Collate a list of possible villains," Izuku said to Brain. "Ears, try to get more information without arousing any suspicion. You have my permission to use some 'leverage' but be careful. Sudor," Izuku said staring at his fellow executive who seemed to eagerly await something to do. "Sit on your hands."

"Wait, what the hell," the icy villain said, somewhat dumbfounded. "Hey, you are not leaving me out of this. I'm the strongest you've got, Boss."

"You also have the stealth abilities of a cat on a piano," Izuku remarked wryly. "If it really comes down to it you can be the distraction squad on the other end of town. But if we're as desperate as to resort to that then the plan has already fallen to pieces. I will go myself and I will take Muscles, Knees and… another person."

"Keeping Tindalos on standby?" Brain asked a question she already knew the answer to. She stood up from her seat at this point, idly checking the time on her phone, although with her Quirk she almost certainly knew it. "I've got some work to do this morning. I2P me anything interesting you find out and I'll put together a plan."

"Thanks Brain," Izuku said as he also stood up. "I'm going to go home and study. Have to work hard if I want to get into the general education course. I bid you all farewell and good luck."

"Can I get a lift from Tiny," Sudor spoke up before Izuku left. "I have to go see a man about some money. He has done quite the runner and I hate taking trains."

"In the interests of not having to cover up the untimely death of another molester I will have to I suppose," Izuku said. Sudor despite normally acting like your typical sporty girl could be astonishingly vindictive and sometimes Izuku was just glad she didn't direct it at him.

Giving a nod he gave out a low whistle before darkness engulfed him as a pair of jaws snapped shut with a chomping sound. He had to go revise mathematics.

xxx

"That's the building we are going to rob," Shigaraki Tomura said from his position behind Izuku. The two of them were standing on a fire escape of an office building opposite the location they were casing out. "It looks like a place that prints newspapers." The white haired villain rubbed his shoulders to try and insulate a bit of warmth from the cool night air. He was dressed in his normal clothes black long sleeved shirt and pants with just an additional brown jacket on to keep out the cold. He had no secret identity, apparently as a result of him having no identity, although Izuku was sketchy on his full history.

"Do people even still read newspapers," the leader of the Living Tree said as he held a pair of binoculars to his eyes. "What did you expect the place to look like? It's a regulatory body for support gear to make sure that the devices don't blow up the heroes or ruin the reputation of the glorious Hero Public Safety Commission. They keep the prototypes in a vault beneath the building behind a door of solid titanium that is just begging to be disintegrated."

"And so why are we standing on a fire escape outside above a dingy alley looking at the building instead of getting into that vault," Shigaraki said impatiently. He still maintained a respectful distance from Izuku, the head of Living Tree had basically informed him that if he stepped within three feet of him he would consider it an attack. It was a bout of healthy paranoia that needed to be instilled within Shigaraki and while Izuku would mentor him there was no way that he would trust him.

"This is the only blind spot in the mess of cameras that cover this place," Izuku said as he dropped down his binoculars. "The roads surrounding the street are flanked by business offices and there are no places where one can casually go and sit down. All of them have their security controls and each and every building would have been vetted by the Public Safety Commission to verify that they are above board. The place also averages police rotations every thirty minutes and the density of hero sightings is significantly above average. What does that tell you Shigaraki."

"We're doing a damn forced stealth mission," Shigaraki said, his voice irritated at the thought.

"Only partially correct," Izuku responded back, never taking his eyes off of the building. "I fully expect stealth to fail at some time. At that point we will grab the goods and run abandoning all further attempts at stealth. Remember Shigaraki, there are no extra lives," Izuku said as he lowered the binoculars. Suddenly a muted vibration came from his side pocket and Izuku pulled out a two way radio.

"You will have forty seconds to get inside before the backup power comes online," a voice came from the radio. "I'm ready to go on your instruction, Boss." The voice sounded young and feminine, likely due to the fact that it was the young female Muscles who was in charge of this stage of the operation.

"Hit it," Izuku said as he leapt onto the railing. "You know what to do," he said to his partner who simply rolled his eyes. He definitely knew what to do considering Izuku went over it about a dozen times. Izuku didn't wait for a confirmation however as he leapt off the fifth story railing drawing a grappling hook at the same time. He made light use of Brain's Quirk calculating the perfect trajectory that allowed him to just catch the top of the skyscraper and sent him in an arc towards the fourth floor window. As he flew towards the incoming glass he watched as simultaneously lights instantly died across the whole block plunging a portion of the city into darkness.

Glass shattered as he broke through the window and landed on his feet. A stifled gasp was enough to tell him that he wasn't alone and so he sprinted towards the location of the noise; a torch wielding security officer clad in a black uniform. Whatever training the man had received it was not enough to hold out for even a second. A blow to his sternum caused the unprepared man to double over and the last thing he sensed was the strong smell of mint as Nose's quirk sent him into slumber.

Izuku didn't have the time to pause for a second however. Five seconds had already passed since the power failure and he had thirty-five seconds before the alarms and cameras went up. Allowing the guard to hit the floor like a marionette with its strings cut, Izuku dashed towards the stairs taking three at a time in a manner which would have caused his mother to scold him if she was there and he wasn't committing a felony right now. With twenty one seconds to spare Izuku arrived at the security office. The door was made of steel but this was already taken into account in Izuku's plans. The office was at the end of a long corridor which allowed Izuku enough time to hit his maximum speed. A brief shield of blue appeared around Izuku's foot a brief instant before he dropkicked the door causing the tough security door to crumple like tinfoil.

The shocked and scared stiff look on one of the night watchmen's face made Izuku behind into his mask. While he was not a sadistic person by nature it was in his job description to be at least a little intimidating. The paralysis didn't last for long though as the man fumbled on his belt for a device that looked like a Taser. Izuku waited a second for him to unclip the device before he yanked it out of the man's hand using his mother's quirk and unloaded it into his opponent.

The device was incredibly effective as the guard immediately went rigid and then fell down to the floor motionless. He seemed to be inflicted by some form of paralysis as his eyes remained wide and open and his pulse and breathing were steady. Izuku decided to keep an eye on him for a moment and instead headed towards the console taking a seat in front of the security cameras. A flick of a button and the doors to the outside smoothly opened to allow Shigaraki to step into the empty lobby. At least the other villain seemed to be taking the situation seriously for once. The manchild seemed to be taking the situation seriously for once as indicated by the fact that he was moving very quickly towards the vault.

Abruptly a shrill ringing sound broke through the silence and Izuku turned his head slightly to see the words incoming call next to what looked to be an old fashioned Bakelite attached to the console. That was both worrying and impressive considering the fact that it had only been just over a minute since the lights went off. It was most likely a routine call to check if the power failure was a symptom of something bigger; which it was. Naturally Izuku considered his options at this point. The easier would be just to not answer. That would likely lead to an inherent uncertainty which may cause the person on the other side to delay the call until they could get through as was human nature. On the other hand there may be protocols that require them to call it in if there was no notice given.

"Tokawa Yagi here," he said pressing the button to receive a call and choosing a random name.

"Tokawa Yagi?" the feminine voice on the other end said sounding out the name with some confusion. "Where's Goro?"

"He just headed towards the water closet," Izuku said. "He left just a bit before the lights went off. He isn't back yet."

"And he left you behind," the woman on the other end of the line replied. "Are you new? I don't think we've ever met before."

"I worked here briefly about two years back but then I had family troubles and had to move," Izuku blatantly lied. "I've only been employed again for about a week and I haven't even officially had orientation yet."

"Well I'm sure it will be a pleasure to have you aboard," the lady said. "I'm Kano Fumiko," she said. "Have you been briefed on the procedures for these situations?"

"It requires a password doesn't it?" Izuku asked. "Just hold on a second and I'll relay it." Izuku looked away at this point and turned towards the still downed Goro who was glaring at him defiantly. He discretely tapped into Brain's quirk before he spoke.

"Password," he said while staring his captive in the eyes. As soon as that word left his lips a string of numbers flowed from the mind of his prisoner into his brain in the form of an eight digits that were whispered into his ears at speeds that were almost too fast to pick up.

"54687231," he said clearly enunciating each number. There was a brief silence as the lady on the opposite was clearly comparing the numbers to her own records. "You have a nice day now," she said brightly. "We'll send additional people to check in on the morning if the powers not running then."

"Hopefully I'll be in my bed by the time they come in," Izuku replied. "Have a nice night." He placed the receiver down letting it click and the call end. Then he pulled out a device that he had been working on for a while. "You wouldn't happen to have a pacemaker," he said to the downed guard receiving a definite 'No" from his mind. "Good, then this then will not harm you." The device that he was holding was a miniature EMP which should take out all electronics on this room and completely wipe the security footage and may also trigger an alarm as a byproduct. Izuku looked through the cameras noticing that Shigaraki had reached the vault by this point and was now disintegrating the middle being very careful not to trigger the sensors around the edges of the vault.

Izuku watched as Shigaraki reached into his pockets and pulled out a device that was shaped like a whistle; a nifty piece of equipment that sent out high frequency noises over up to a few kilometres away. The device was obviously effective as Tindalos appeared from one of the corners of the room and hopped through the hole in the steel door. With a sigh Shigaraki gave one last look at the camera before climbing into the vault himself.

Izuku sat down in the chair for a moment watching them. Despite how collected he appeared on the outside his heart was beating like a drum and he kept calm forcibly by rearranging his quirks in case it was necessary for him to make a quick getaway.

"How long does that thing last anyway," Izuku said ten minutes later after he had fully sorted his remaining Quirks. He looked down towards the security guard on the floor who remained still. "Oh I see," he said giving him a regarding look. "You regained motion a while ago. I suppose that is the best plan. You have good judgement. Nothing you could do would affect me anyway."

"Why are you doing this?" the security guard finally spoke out, his words filled with venom.

"You know how hard it is to get a job in this economy," Izuku said smirking. "Somebody has to put bread on the table."

"You could have been a hero," the security guard said and Izuku broke out into a chuckle. If that little display was skilled enough to be a hero then heroes wouldn't be so venerated.

"Let me guess," he said. "You wanted to be a hero, but your quirk wasn't powerful enough so you had to settle for this job. You resent me for having the ability to become a hero and choosing not to. You're just jealous of the fact that I actually enjoy my job Goro."

"Don't call me that," the man on the floor said continuing with his glaring and then they were both disrupted by a ring from the Bakelite. Izuku debated once more over letting it ring before he picked up the phone.

"This is Tokawa Yagi here," he said covering the receiver with his hand so that any words that Goro might say wouldn't get through."

"Hi again," the familiar voice of that Fumiko sounded over the phone. "I just called to tell you that there have been reports from next door of somebody entering through the window. They are going to send a hero over."

"Oh, which hero?" Izuku asked, interested and a little dismayed.

"Get this; I heard that they are going to send the number eight hero," her voice sounded excited but Izuku felt anything but at the moment. "Are you still there?" she asked after a moment of silence.

"Don't tell him anything Kano," Goro suddenly shouted from his position on the floor.

"Wait Goro, you're back," an element of confusion entered the voice over the telephone. "What are you talking about?"

"First name terms? Goro, you sly dog," Izuku chuckled despite his nerves. "I'm afraid to tell you that I am a villain and am currently robbing this place," he said into the phone.

A long moment of stunned silence came over the phone, but Izuku didn't have any time as he placed the receiver down before crushing the Bakelite with the bottom of his fist. That piece of news had been unexpected and he contemplated his luck for Living Tree to run into the two strongest females in Japan. Still while Knees lost to the Dragon that didn't mean that Izuku would lose. He was after all quite a bit stronger than Knees; there was far more of a chasm between third and second than between second and first. Still there was no need to keep Shigaraki around and so Izuku reached into his pocket and pulled out his two-radio.

"Bring it to a close," he said briefly.

"I've almost got the last of the high value loot," Shigaraki replied just as quickly. "Give me another three minutes and I can get fifty million more.

"Hurry up," Izuku said as he prepared to destroy the consoles only for his radio to sound again. "Yes," he said picking it up.

"Boss, somebody just jumped through the window on the fourth floor," the worried voice of Muscles sounded out. "They were moving very fast."

Izuku immediately turned towards the security camera and his eyes roamed the dozens of feeds until they latched onto a blur… right outside the room. His eyes whipped towards the door a second before an immensely quick kick lashed out towards his abdomen with force that would easily take him out of the fight.

The kick impacted on his stomach and he was immediately torn in two as gore flew about everywhere before the chunks, that were a muddy green in colour reversed their direction and were attracted to his midsection once more and burrowed into his shirt. That threw his opponent into a loop as she came to a stop leaning on the console and Izuku immediately and vindictively hit the button for the EMP causing all of the surrounding devices to smoke and explode and the hero to launch herself off of the console and onto the floor.

"Are you trying to stop me you wascally wabbit?" Izuku said mockingly as he looked at the No.8 Hero Mirko.

"No I came to offer you carrot cake," the rabbit responded just as quickly. "What is your Quirk anyway?"

"My dashing looks," Izuku said stepping back. "You can't see beneath the mask but I'm really handsome."

"I'll just beat it out of you then," the rabbit said and she moved. Izuku's normally high speed failed him at that moment and half of his head was obliterated with a kick that he only partly dodged. He slowed down the reformation and immediately activated Brain's Quirk speeding up his analytical procedures and thoughts. Despite half his head being missing he was still able to calculate the optimal time and just as he was about to get hit the world slowed to a crawl and he was able to get sway to the side to avoid getting bisected again. The remainder of his head reformed and he pulled down his hood to prevent his face from being seen, considering a good quarter of his mask was now destroyed.

Still this was a losing battle and so Izuku did what he did best in this situation. Cheat and run away. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a useful device before setting a timer and holding it behind his back as calculations were made and the world slowed to a crawl. As the foot of the killer rabbit approached Izuku gave a grin and head-butted it.

Two seconds later as his head reformed from the sludge he was overjoyed to see the security guard and the rabbit writhing on the floor, the spent flashbang laying innocuously on the ground nearby. Must really suck to get hit by 170 decibels if you have rabbit ears. Thankfully as he had neither ears nor eyes the flashbang didn't affect him at all. Still this was no time to monologue smugly; they wouldn't be able to hear him anyway. Once more he pulled his hood over his head thanking his over prepared mind that the cameras were out before he ran out of the door and towards the stairs.

He could hear Mirko stumble to her feet behind him and while he could respect her gumption he had to admit that he really didn't like her. He hit the stairs pulling out a dog whistle and blowing as hard as he could despite the burning in his lungs. As he hit the bottom of the stairs he heard a crashing sound that was coming closer at a high speed and he practically dove into the quickly forming mouth and teeth. The last sight that he saw before Tindalos snapped his mouth shut and he felt that familiar feeling of teleportation was the sight of a bleeding rabbit, with a wide viscous smile.

Two minutes later Shigaraki was retrieved by Tindalos. He had apparently had no problems as the deafened rabbit didn't even know of his presence. As thanks for his help Izuku treated him to a properly cooked steak.

**Author Note: You know it struck me some time during writing this that Izuku was basically playing One Night at Freddies. **


	6. Chapter 6

**At the Headquarters of the Hero Public Safety Commission**

The headquarters of the Hero Public Safety Commission tended to fluctuate between two extremes. Either the building tended to be intensely quiet as its already sparse staff worked away from the main building or it tended to be bustling as when certain activities had to be done immediately or in the aftermath of a major disaster. This situation certainly qualified as the later.

"Two and a half billion yen!" the head of the Public Safety Commission yelled as she threw down a thick set of documents. The bags under her eyes indicated that she had been severely lacking in sleep lately and she looked more wrinkled then ever as her voice resounded in the quiet room. "It's been a week and we still haven't got the slightest lead on any of the stolen equipment. This entire farce is making us look very bad and I shudder to think of the effect that this news is having on the public."

"We have got some leads," the stern faced Commissioner General said. "While we have busted one of the gambling dens run by this Living Tree we haven't managed to capture any of their core members although we have managed to acquire some information on them."

"Do tell then," a snowy upright standing mammalian creature in a fancy suit said as he leaned forward. "I've tried to do my own research into this group but all their loose strings are remarkably well-tied up. I gained very little."

"So did we frankly," the head of the Police Force said. "All of the highest ranked members are named after body parts. "Knees, Muscles, Nose, Ears, Sudor."

"Sudor?" one of the heroes who were sitting in on the meeting said.

"Latin for sweat I believe," the white furred mammal said. "Not really a body part but I suppose it does fit the theme if you squint."

"If I can continue without interruptions," the police chief said. "We have identified Knees as the young male in this picture," he said pulling out a photo from the stack showcasing a young adult fighting against the Pro Hero Kamui Woods. "He seems to have some form of forcefield Quirk that generates at the extremities of his body. We have preliminarily placed him as a B-Rank villain but that may be subject to change. He's very fast and strong with some backing in martial arts."

"I can confirm that," Ryukyu said from her place at one of the seats. She had been invited as she had briefly captured the aforementioned member of Living Tree. "He's rough but fast on his feet and he's got good reflexes. Those forcefields also hurt quite a bit if they manage to hit you."

"The second one that we've managed to identify is Nose," the police man said as he pulled out a picture of a dandy looking man. "Nose's power seems to revolve around the sense of smell but we weren't able to narrow it down. We believe that it may be similar in power to Aggrandize, a famous criminal from Australia. We have attached a brief description of his known Quirk here but there were still gaps by his time of death."

"The third one that we've identified is Muscles," the commissioner said as he placed down a picture of a young purple haired girl dressed in a form fitting green costume with a butterfly mask. "Her Quirk is very similar to that of the Yaoyorozu family. She seems to be able to transform her mass into various tools but the tools appear to convert back into flesh after a certain period of time and any other restrictions are not known at this time."

"Are we certain it's not an illegitimate child," the head of the Hero Public Safety Commission said. "The relative of a hero becoming a villain is something that could reflect most poorly on both the hero in question and us as a group."

"Do you want to go and ask the family if they have any illegitimate children," the Commissioner General said giving a steely look.

"Moving on the last one we know of is this Sudor," he said putting down a picture of the white haired amazon who was greeting the camera with middle finger upraised. "Her power appears to work through her body fluids causing her to freeze anything that touches them. She also appears to be able to discharge sweat from her body in a large radius allowing her to freeze certain areas. We believe that she may be a child of Hypotherm."

A collective wince spread throughout the table at that prospect. Hypotherm was an A-Rank criminal at his peak and while he was eventually killed by Endeavour the fallout had led to colossal amounts of damage and unacceptable losses of life. If the young girl turned out to be anything like her father then the consequences could be disastrous.

"The next one is called Tiny," the Commissioner General said ignoring the background noise. "It is actually a dog of which we have no recorded pictures. He appears to have some form of portal Quirk."

"You don't have to look at me like I know him," Nedzu spoke up causing the people around him who were doing just that to quickly avert their eyes. "While it is extremely rare for an animal to manifest a Quirk it is not unheard of. I do wonder how they got their hands on this Tiny though. A portal Quirk is a very valuable thing for any villain team."

"The last member we know of…" the Commissioner General started before suddenly the doors were flung open disrupting his speech and causing tensions to arise as every person in the room momentarily raised their guard before they realised who had arrived and lowered it. Standing in the doorway was the Rabbit Hero Mirko garbed in civilian gear with a set of high-tech headphones strapped around her ears.

"I heard you were having a meeting about that sneaky rogue without me," Mirko said, her voice a tad too high for the situation. "Shouldn't you invite somebody who actually fought him? I don't see All Might either."

"You are still recovering," the President of the Hero Public Safety Commission said.

"It's not any big deal you just need to speak up," Mirko said gesturing to her ears. "Guy is fast and can turn himself into some green slime creature. He also carries at least one flashbang and has a good sense of timing." She paused for a moment before she gave a bloodthirsty grin. "Of course the guy is a coward who breaks and runs at the first sight of a strong enemy."

"And that is the elephant in the room," Nedzu spoke up. "He has at least two unrelated Quirks and if that is the case then he may possibly have more."

"Could we have another Nine on our hands," the President of the Hero Public Safety Commission said only for Nedzu to shake his head.

"If he was really as strong as Nine then Mirko would be dead," Nedzu spoke up eliciting a growl from the Rabbit Hero. "He probably has a weaker Quirk that allows him to copy Quirks. Of course that means that there may be members in his gang with the same Quirk."

"That's quite a disconcerting thought," the Commissioner General said. "If he can copy the Quirk of this Sudor or Muscles he could cause quite a lot of damage. He well deserves that S-Rank."

"Is that all the information that you've received," Nedzu said as the Commissioner took back the files. "I couldn't help but notice that we haven't learned of any more members that we haven't already seen. I can't help but wonder if it is because that is all they have or all they will publicize."

"You think that they might have several hidden members," the Commissioner said. "Ones that even their own members may not know of."

"Or maybe just those specific members you've found," Nedzu said before shaking his head. "I was not able to get any more specific details but the way in which I was denied made me think that their might be some evil mastermind behind the group still."

"We have identified the boss though," one of the heroes who had remained quiet until now spoke up. "Wasn't that the guy with the mask?"

"He may just be the proxy," the President of the Hero Public Safety Commission said. "We should keep an open mind for now. "None of us know what they are planning next."

xxx

**At the Headquarters of the Living Tree**

The Living Tree headquarters were generally reasonably soundless. Technically speaking to call it a headquarters was a bit of a stretch considering very few people frequented the building for extensive periods of time and large portions of it were used for storing stuff. Most of the people who were aware of its existence had their own businesses and spheres of influence and thus would spend their workdays over there. If they were to meet up they would either do it at the arcade or over the internet having taken the appropriate precautions. In fact only Izuku and Ears had permanent rooms and only Muscles tended to spend any time in the guest room; all of whom were often quiet for long periods of time.

"Are you really going to just sit there all day, Boss," Sudor, who for the first time in a long time had set foot into the headquarters today, said out loud. "Don't you feel like going out for a spar so you can avenge your loss against Miss Myxomatosis?"

"Firstly," Izuku said as he lowered his laptop. "I didn't lose, I wisely retreated. Secondly I came up with that name and I thought it was funny. You using it all the time is causing it to start to wear on me. Thirdly, no I don't feel like getting my butt kicked today."

"Really what's in the laptop," Sudor said standing up and trying to look over Izuku's shoulder.

"It's nothing just studying for the high school entrance exam," Izuku said as he quickly closed the laptop.

"You're not a kid boss,' Sudor said teasingly. "Let me guess Brain gave you time off work to prepare and you're still doing company work." She chuckled to herself. "Weren't you the one who was adamant that people take time off all Living Tree work currently? We are all on vacation after all."

"I am free to give any of my members of my staff a vacation whenever I think it is necessary," Izuku said. "I don't have to be bound by the same pronouncements. I also never placed a limit on the ability to train."

"None of them are going to be training boss," Sudor said as she collapsed into the couch again. "Since Nose gave out that blanket invite to his cabana by the sea we lost most of our training members. Knees, Muscles and even that mooch Liver jumped right onto that invite."

"You were invited as well Sudor," Izuku said as he tapped a few keys on his laptop.

"If I wanted to get burned I would just go out and pick a fight with Endeavor," Sudor said rolling her eyes. "And why don't you go then. Oh that's right, because you hate the beach boss. You could have at least got Brain to take you on her foreign trip."

"A foreign business trip with an intern," Izuku said chuckling. "What are the chances they are going to believe that the two of us are doing the horizontal tango?"

"Going out with the young intern," Sudor said before smiling wickedly. "I could see it happening. Can you believe the scandal?"

"She's only a couple years older than you and you are only three years older than me," Izuku said firmly. "Before you ask Ears is spending some quality time with his sister. I don't wish to impose."

"We have more members than that," Sudor said. "Vein?"

"Never know with her," Izuku said. "That woman either doesn't answer her emails for days or literally lives on my doorstep. She's a tsundere of the highest order and right now I haven't heard a thing this week."

"That woman doesn't make much sense," Sudor agreed. "I heard Brain sacrificed a gambling den."

"It wasn't profitable," Izuku said. "Manager was skimming too much off the top. We let him take the fall to ease of some of the heat. Give out some safe information on already known members. In the meantime we will just lie low for a bit and let the heroes work themselves into frenzy while we relax."

"That's not really relaxing," Sudor said. "So what is on the laptop anyway?"

"It's an old scientific paper that our current associate directed me towards," Izuku said. "To be precise it is a seventy year old paper that is remarkably similar to the Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory of today."

"That wackjob theory," Sudor said after racking her brains for a moment. "Wasn't that disproved years ago?"

"It wasn't taken seriously enough to be disproved," Izuku said. "Still this guy was a true genius. With so few generations he has managed to create a compelling and logical argument and has gained a loyal supporter of this theory."

"You're getting rather chummy with All For One, Boss," Sudor said.

"We have a meeting once a week over the internet in which we mainly talk about Shigaraki and any continued cooperation between us," Izuku refuted. "I mentioned that I was learned in Quirk Theory and he sent me that paper. I will have to try and see if I can get more of these papers from him assuming I can't just get them off the internet."

"You think it will help you with your own Quirk?" Sudor asked with some hidden eagerness.

"I think that the Quirk Singularity Theory is the key to creating more merged Quirks without any drawbacks," Izuku said stoking Sudor's eagerness. "Since my Quirk grows stronger through knowledge I hope that by augmenting my own knowledge that I will improve both the Quirks that I use and those that I give out."

"You're sitting there all stoic, but I can see you practically fidgeting in excitement," Sudor teased before she stood up. "Alright if you are going to sit here and vegetate then I'm going to head out. Want me to grab you anything boss," she said.

"I'm heading out for Sushi with my mom tonight," Izuku said. "She's just gone through a nasty flu and I wanted to arrange a celebration."

"And you didn't invite me," Sudor said sticking out her tongue and getting a deadpan look from Izuku. "I know, I know. You don't drink where you crap. Half the reason you even wear that mask is to keep all of this from coming back to your mom. You're such a good little mother's boy, Boss."

"Continue Sudor, see what I am going to do," Izuku said flatly but there was a smile that showed he wasn't serious. While he would always be the Boss of Living Tree he was the second youngest member of the group and Sudor sometimes couldn't help but pull his leg.

"Alright then, I'm heading out Boss," Sudor said receiving a nod as Izuku returned to intensely studying the laptop screen. A minute later she found herself on the streets of Mustafu walking through the somewhat busy streets, or at least busier than they had any right to be at four in the afternoon. Shouldn't people be at home preparing supper at this point in time? Schools were currently out so it made sense that there would be more people on the streets. Suddenly there was a bustle ahead in the street and Sudor casually walked up to the location where a larger crowd was gathered.

Apparently judging by the crowd's susurrations a hero had stopped some criminal and the remaining crowd were gathered around the site of the incident while the cops were taking the criminal away. Sudor stood a bit taller, easily peeking her head over the tops of the crowd, and noticed that the hero was Death Arms who was posing for the cameras and signing autographs. For a brief moment bloodlust welled within Sudor and she contemplated simply moving forward and murdering the hero right there in front of the crowd causing the admiration and ululation to change to shock and horror in a second.

Then she calmed down. While she could kill the Pro Hero it would gain nothing for the gang and go against the Boss' specific instructions. Furthermore she couldn't be certain that there weren't more dangerous Pro Heroes that would be drawn out in the ensuing commotion. There was little to gain and much to lose and while Sudor hated heroes with a passion she would not betray the Boss' trust and endanger Living Tree. Besides as the strongest member what would they do without her?

Mood thoroughly ruined Sudor headed down the street watching as the crowds dwindled as she moved away from the city centre and into a quieter part of time where aging apartments were the order of the day instead of ever slick skyscrapers. Sudor spent some time looking at the crumbling infrastructure that she had grown up around before she shook it off. It had been so long since she had left home that she didn't even believe she would recognize it if she ran across it again. A few kids were playing soccer in one of the yards and Sudor stopped for a moment in nostalgic remembrance.

She had sucked at soccer, but they had always left a spot for her to play as the defender. That was when she was still a weak kid who stayed at home while her dad went to work. She remembered when her dad had gotten a job at the 'bank' and moving to a nicer neighbourhood before a year later she ended up in foster care. Her instincts flared at that moment and she took a step back before she lashed out with a kick towards the soccer ball that was barrelling towards her. The kick was dead on and the ball went soaring towards the top right of the plastic goalposts.

"Wow, that was amazing," one of the brown haired boys said as he ran up, a few of the other following behind.

"Eat your meat and vegetables and get plenty of sleep and you'll grow up strong just like me," Sudor said smiling at the young faces. She waved towards the lady who was surreptitiously peering out of the window, obviously making sure that she wouldn't cause trouble, and the lady waved back after a moment of embarrassment.

"Will that be enough to become a hero," one of the little bastards spoke up causing Sudor's grin to fade somewhat.

"Don't sell yourself so short," she said. "You can become something better like a doctor or a teacher."

"Toshi, can't become a hero," another one of the little monkeys said. "He hasn't even got a Quirk.

"Oh right I forgot," Sudor said to herself. "Kids are stupid." She looked back down to see the original brown-haired boy who was apparently called Toshi on the verge of tears before she put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry," she said. "Being a hero sucks anyway. All they do is go out and get their butt kicked day in and out by villains and other criminals. They can't even do anything fun with their powers otherwise the public yells at them. If I'm still around in ten years I'll introduce you to a much cooler career than heroism."

"Really," the boy said rubbing his eyes. "What is it?"

"No spoilers," Sudor said with a finger across her lips. "But you know what the best part of not being a hero is. You don't have to stand around and play nice when the public annoys you. You can just leave," she said as she turned around and left the crowd of children.

xxx

**5 minutes later**

"Man the GPS on this thing is just terrible," Sudor said as she tried to figure out what the hell street she was on now. Suddenly her eye caught something in one of the streets that she passed and she took a reflexive step back to get a better look at it. Sitting in the street looking as if nothing had changed was Ndoor's Nice Dream and Waffles, a dive that her Dad had taken her when she was much younger.

"I was in the mood for some ice cream right now," she said justifying it to herself. She hesitated for a bit more before she turned into the street and headed towards the brightly lit sign. The inside was clean if small with only two tables with half couches attached to the wall and half chairs. At one of the tables sat a family of four with two misbehaving young children and the other sat a single red-headed man. There was no queue and thus Sudor was able to easily obtain her dessert, a vanilla-chocolate sundae with grated chocolate and marshmallow bits. She took the couch seat without the crying children and without much preamble started to dig into the ice cream. The dish was sickeningly sweet to her mature tastebuds and she couldn't believe she had such fond memories of the treat.

"Would you like a handkerchief," the man opposite her said calmly and she looked up to see piercing blue eyes looking at her in concern while holding a handkerchief out towards. She raised her hand to her face and felt some wetness there before she took the handkerchief in a dignified manner and wiped the tears from her eyes. She then handed back the handkerchief to the man who put it back in his suit and replaced his earphones in his rightful place.

Suddenly Sudor didn't really feel like eating ice cream at all. She almost begrudgingly swallowed another spoonful before she pushed it away and walked out of the shop. She sighed feeling somewhat melancholy about the situation as she stared at the sign. Suddenly she felt a bump and a short black haired person with what looked to be an eight foot tall humanoid kangaroo. Sudor disbelievingly checked her pocket only to realise her wallet wasn't there.

"Did I just get pickpocketed?" she said dumbfounded before she laughed her bad mood fading at the absurdity of the situation. She took a deep breath as she counted down from five as the small time crook faded in the distance before she moved.

If anybody was watching at the moment they might have mistaken the strongest member of the Living Tree for some form of beast in human skin. While Sudor could never have been said to be the most delicate looking girl; now she resembled nothing more than some primordial predator. She appeared as a prehistoric monster hunting down its prey with efficiency unknown to man and it appeared the human kangaroo also felt that way too as the creature leapt from the floor and into a nearby alleyway.

Sudor let out a bestial chuckle as she turned into the alleyway in time to see it leap over a chain link fence that prevented the alley from becoming a thoroughfare. The man paused for a moment in apparent triumph and that was his mistake as Sudor leapt into the wall rebounding off and onto the top of the chain fence before casually dropping to the ground ten metres away from the small time criminal.

"Aren't you going to run some more," Sudor said with a bloodthirsty grin.

"Listen girl," the kangaroo said his voice harsh and threatening. "You really don't want to push me…"

"Halt," a new voice came from the alleyway and Sudor lamented that the fun was likely over. Standing blocking the entrance to the alleyway was some blonde haired hero in a red cape that looked as if he was barely out of hero school. Still to take down this level of villain he was more than enough and Sudor relaxed her stance. "Sutoshi Hiyenba you are wanted for the crime of theft and assault. Please surrender."

Well that was news to Sudor. Apparently the kangaroo could commit real crimes as well. Stealing her wallet must have been just messing about. The only reason why the hero wasn't advancing was likely because she was closer and he wanted this to end without the chance of him taking her hostage or attacking her. It truly was a pity…for him.

She could see it clearly as the kangaroo launched himself forward towards her and the blonde hero moved as well. It looked like he was trying to take her hostage rather than attack her with that nasty looking knife blade on his foot. How disappointing; but if he wouldn't kick then neither would she.

No fancy moves were required on her part and instead she leapt forward with a speed stretching out her arm and catching him on the neck before in one more movement she brought him down to the pavement with a crashing sound. When the dust had cleared she stood up and placed her foot on the defeated semiconscious body of her opponent.

"Would you like to give me a count," she asked Mr. Redcape.

"A what?" the hero said his large blue eyes staring aghast at her.

"You know," Sudor mimed. "1.2.3. Ding, ding, ding. How you know the match has ended."

"I think we can classify this as a ring out," blondie said. "My names Lemillion. Can you tell me how you met this guy?"

"Guy stole my wallet," Sudor said picking the discarded object off the ground.

"Could we have some proof that it is your wallet," another voice spoke and a slim blue skinned girl wearing a rather skimpy costume arrived in the alley. "My name is Bubble Girl by the way." She offered her hand. Sudor didn't take it. Instead she opened up her wallet and showed him her ID document.

"Suzuki Sato," she read out. "I should advise you that while you are lawfully allowed to try and reclaim your stolen property without Quirk usage it can be dangerous from both a safety and a legal perspective. Especially if you have a mutant Quirk or one related to strength."

"I've browsed the Quirk laws," Sudor said. "Don't worry and thank you for your help. Can I leave now? I've got way too many outstanding parking tickets to want to talk to the cops."

"I would advise against it but I can't stop you," Bubble Girl said. "He will be brought up on charges without your participation and you acted in clear self-defence. Have a nice day."

"Hmm," Sudor said. "I think if I will. Goodbye." She walked past the two of them and out of the alleyway." Sometime during the whole chase or maybe it was when she had her show down with the heroes, she had started to feel a bit better.

"Wait," the first hero Redcape said and he approached coming dangerously close to her effective fighting range. "I'm sorry," he said bowing deeply. "I was to slow and I put you in danger."

"Life's dangerous," Sudor said flippantly. "Whether you have a hundred heroes or a million that won't change. See you around slowpoke." She gave a jaunty wave as she walked back to her base, taking several detours to make sure she wasn't followed. It turns out the cure to her melancholia was just punching something and she knew at least one person that could take a good punch and dish one out, if he was sufficiently motivated.

**Author Note: Bit of an odd chapter focusing a lot on a character that isn't the MC. Tell me what you think.  
****BTW bit of an aside but why do people follow completed stories. Are they just calling my bluff or something?**


	7. Chapter 7

_4 Septembr _

_I woke up this morning and it was very cold. and I didn't want to get up but I was tiold I must get up at 8. I had breakfast with Mommy today __ but she didn't smile so much and she asked me a lot of questions, not many that I knew. Today I did my cards and I got most of them write. Akagi was so happy and I got ice-cream for supper._

_5 __Septembr __September_

_My previous date was wrong, just ignore my previous date. My current date was correct. Today was warm. Akagi said the Cool Front had ended and that it would be warm in future. I asked Akagi about my sister today but he didn't answer. They don't like me. I can't speak like my sister. I went to be early today._

_6 September_

_I'm sad. Akagi said that soon that he will be leaving. I couldn't understand why when he tried to explain it. If Akagi leaves then who is going to talk to me. I won't be able to eat breakfast and I will get hungry and die. I don't know what I'm going to do._

_7 September_

_Akagi left today. There was a new lady who I didn't like. She's strict. I'm going to leave tomorrow. They won't miss me anyway. I will pack my bags and live in the park. I've seen people live in the park but Akagi wouldn't allow me to talk to them. I miss Akagi._

_8 September 2315_

_I look back at my diary entries and I wince in psychological pain at its owner's former inability. Truly life is not fair and it has never been fair to the former holder of this chronicle. Born into a wealthy family she lacked not only a Quirk of her own but the mental acuity to thrive in this world. She grew up physically in the cold Akamine family but mentally she never grew up. To the avaricious Akamines her lack of ability signalled her eternal status as a lodestone and she was shunted unused for the moment; the hidden shame of the cold Akamine family._

_On the prior day her caretaker was promoted to a non-useless member of the family and she decided to escape. Normally this would be impossible but luck or fate or the devil showed its favour towards her and somehow this incapable child was able to elude her newest warden and made it all the way to the park. Under almost any other circumstances she would have been captured in a few days, her plan foiled by those vastly more capable than her. That would have been her fate if it wasn't for a single meeting today._

_The young girl, tired after the process of lugging around all her worldly possessions, decided to stop by a bench taking a seat next to a short boy with dark green hair who eyed her with intense green eyes containing profound mysteries. Oblivious of his impending significance the young girl stumbled into conversation with him, her words barely formed and rough just like her sluggish thoughts._

_The conversation was light with her explaining her situation stumblingly and he nodded sympathetically adding in a few questions that she answered stumblingly. After a few questions he suddenly gave an ineffable smile before he reached out his hand and took hers. _

_That was the second that Sakura Akamine died._

_I wonder if this is what people feel like when they undergo religious conversion. In a second the simple yet terrifying world that I had seen was stripped away revealing the complex underpinnings. My muddy thoughts became clear as thousands of memories were absorbed and reinterpreted. It was simultaneously horrifying and beautiful; wretched and sacred, leaving me feeling both terribly full and hauntingly empty as my world was torn down and reassembled. Maybe comparing it to meeting a god was not so far off. _

_More aware and yet more confused than I have ever been in my life I turned towards my casual acquaintance who had given me this wondrous, impossible, beautiful gift. Despite my newly gained intelligence I had not yet reached my current eloquence and so I looked into the eyes of the boy/man/god and poured all my confusion and disbelief into a single word._

"_Why," I asked alone and adrift finally seeing the ocean from my raft of ignorance._

"_I wanted to," he said simply downplaying the impossibility of what he had done._

"_You are a good person," I said remembering the words that had been taught to me, but they felt ill-fitting to describe this being and he snorted in amusement causing shame to run through me._

"_I'm not good," he denied emphatically. "I'm evil." Despite my newly ascended brain I lacked far too much context to seeing why what he did was evil and so I merely tilted my head and remained silent. After a moment he chuckled to himself before he sat up straighter and looked me dead in the eye._

"_A good person would return you to your parents," he said, his bearing indicating that he believed that he was telling the truth. "Maybe they would have reported your treatment to the police station but nothing would have happened in the end. The law is ultimately a way to prevent people from kicking up a fuss. As an evil person I can give the gift of knowledge to a previously disadvantaged girl throwing her life into question and simultaneously launching a bullet against a rich and powerful family; and this was all because I felt like it."_

_He laughed at that point and I couldn't help but notice how his laugh appeared to be modelled after those stereotypically evil laughs favoured by cartoon villains. I could easily see the holes in his worldview but his enthusiasm was infectious and in that moment despite all my hard analysis I found myself enraptured._

"_What is your Quirk called," I asked trying to discern knowledge about the item that gifted me with such intelligence._

"_Mother Tree of Life," he responded and my newly upgraded brain rapidly drew and discarded conclusions until I arrived at the most likely one._

"_A biblical reference," I said. "You are referring to one of the two trees in the Garden of Eden along with the Tree of Knowledge. It either seems misnamed or your Quirk is more versatile then I have been led to believe."_

"_I can't just disclose my Quirk to anybody like that," he said leaving certain things unsaid. Those certain things were as plain as day to myself. I was indebted to him and I was well placed into society in order to leverage my new found intelligence. I would be a great asset to him in almost all endeavours that he could undertake. Even having worked this all out I desired greatly to help him, my gratitude was not contingent on his altruism. My saviour from the darkness was truly deserving of all my efforts whether he was a god or a devil._

With a small smile on her face Sakura Algernon put down the worn diary. There was very little place for sentimentalism in her life but her old journal was something that she still kept in its original form. She put down the diary in a sealed vault before locking it and placing it with the rest of her luggage in her hotel room. It had been a long two weeks having to deal with the various business partners in China. The country was a powerhouse in manufacturing and simultaneously a huge consumer and Sakura had expanded the trade routes in a wholly successful attempt to increase profits.

Still despite the great benefits she had obtained the process started to wear on her a bit and she felt herself looking forward to her small, homely multi-billion company. Still there was one more meeting and it was a rather important one. She was meeting a Mr. Hai Rong at the Theed Tower and the company that he represented was the leading in Quirk enhancing substances used by Heroes. The market was medium in size but dominated by the aforementioned An Hai industries and there was a strong persistent customer base.

She stepped out of the door to the hotel room and one short limo ride she found herself engaged in conversation with a rather well-padded man of fifty years. The dull dance of negotiations commenced and Sakura found herself getting into the well-trod practice that she always won. Still today the practice was a bit too easy which occupied her mind slightly. It was likely that something was going to be sprung on her at the end of the meeting. If the proposition was benign than she would look forward to it but if force looks like it was going to be used then she would press the button for a second time and call in her support. If her opponent was observant enough than they would recognize that the shadows in the corner of the room had already darkened slightly, and if he resorted to violence then Brain was very willing to leave a bloody mess.

"Two hundred thousand units over a period of two years with a deposit of 10% and 6% per annum interest is the best we can do," Mr. Hai Ron said and Sakura nodded to show her acceptance of the favourable offer. "Before you go can we speak about one more last minute item that wasn't placed on the agenda?" As he said that he left the table waving off a few of his aides that attempted to follow him.

"A few minutes just opened in my schedule," Sakura said with interest as she did the same.

"Very well," the man said with a grateful smile before handing a folder across to Sakura. Without any preamble she opened up the folder and scanned the document containing very, very interesting implications. Her eyes easily skimmed along the paper confirming an unlikely but possible outcome.

"Some very interesting chemicals you want," Sakura said watching him stiffen. "Maryaceodoxital, Hepisterimel-42, and the list goes on from what I've seen," she mused already seeing where this was going. "Not illegal by any means but quite regulated. A shipment this size can only have two possible uses. Either you are playing Build-A-Bear with hundreds of thousands of people organs or you are dabbling back into the Oshimoto project."

He drew a breath in at that. The Oshimoto product was a secret experiment by the Chinese government years ago in which the country bypassed international law in an attempt to create genetically engineered humans with much stronger bodies. That didn't work and when it was discovered China played it off as rogue elements and were forced to officially disband it.

"I would be honoured to aid such a humanitarian effort as providing medical treatment to the injured," Sakura said with a smile noticing a well-hidden look of relief on her opponents face. The details would be hashed out after a while and the increased risk would lead to a much greater profit. Not that the profit was the only advantage or even just the most important. Izuku would never forgive her if she discovered a group performing research on Super Soldiers and didn't make plans to obtain it.

"You are very much like your father," the Chinese businessman said in a complimentary tone and Sakura maintained a polite smile despite the distaste that bubbled up within her as she heard that. Instead she spent a few more words sorting out the final details of a possible collaboration and organized an online meeting to discuss the topic further. Lastly she said her goodbyes before she left the building and was driven back to her hotel room. Almost as soon as she got back to her hotel room her phone rang and she picked it up switching the calls into untraceable mode before she took the call.

"Good Afternoon Boss," she said. "How did the exams go?" She had long altered all the listening devices in the room. Right now any recordings would play innocuous pre-recorded sounds at certain times.

"They were easy," Izuku replied flippantly. "I didn't even have to use High Spec and I still got in the ninety-fifth percentile. Mom and I went and watched a mystery movie to celebrate. How did the business negotiations go over on your end? Did anything interesting happen?" Despite him asking it was easy to tell that he wasn't really that interested and was just asking for her sake.

"Yes, they were very successful overall," Brain said smiling at the thought. "By the way what do you know about the Oshimoto project?"

"China's doing it again," Izuku caught on immediately. "How ironic the timing is. Our mutual associate seems to be dabbling in the same field of study. It seems like fate is pushing forward humanity to evolve again." He laughed at that point, a laugh that sounded like that of a cartoon supervillain and Brain smiled to see him so excited.

"That is not as ironic as you believe," Brain said. "It makes sense that he would be dabbling in human modification given the breadth of research you had already acquired from him. I would be surprised if he hadn't made overtures in that direction. What did they show you?"

"A genetically altered being that could contain and operate multiple distinct Quirks," Izuku said and Brain immediately realised they were in a long time alliance. "Problematically the process seems to put additional strain on the beings mental capacity," Izuku remarked casually if he was discussing the weather. "This is obviously pretty unacceptable for us."

"Evidently," Brain said. "What is he going to be using this superbeing for anyway," Brain said.

"You're asking questions that you already know the answer to," Izuku said. "He gave it to Shigaraki and allowed him to take a shot at All Might." Izuku's words showed he had little faith in his student's ability to do so. "I'm going to be frank Brain. I've been tracking All Might and I'm beginning to suspect he's on a timer of sorts. If I spent the better part of the day wearing him down then I should be able to kill him with some certainty. Even that creature, Nomu he called it, appears to be a rather durable opponent. If Shigaraki just went into the battle attempting to rope-a-dope and then mopped up afterwards then I would actually bet money on his victory."

"But you haven't advised him either way," Brain deduced. "What did All For One recommend."

"He's using it as a test for Shigaraki," Izuku said. "Don't get me wrong, he could get lucky and win, but I wouldn't put money on it."

"Hey Boss what would you do if you had to kill All Might?" Brain asked. She already knew the answer of course, having gained some familiarity with her leader over their years of working together; she even knew how to phrase the question properly.

"I never have to do anything, Brain," Izuku said calmly, emphasising the word 'have'. People who tried to force him to perform would likely never have good ends.

"Oh my apologies, if you wanted to kill All Might how would you do it," she rephrased. "Would you follow your own advice?"

"I would face down All Might head-to-head and defeat him then," Izuku said seriously, not even entertaining the thought of performing it sneakily. "Right now I lack personal strength; otherwise I would have done it already. I've almost ninety percent done simulating Mr. Smiley-All-The-Time's Quirk and maybe actually recreating it will give me an idea of its weaknesses."

"That's amazing," Brain said, smiling in delight. "I can imagine I will be treated to another round of megalomaniacal boasting when you finally obtain the most powerful Quirk on Earth."

"You know it Brain," Izuku said chuckling. "Now I've got myself excited. I'm going to go dive into my research. By the way Brain if you have time can you try and find out if there is anybody with a duplicating Quirk. Kthx, bye." He hung up the phone at that time and Brain could visualise him diving towards his laptop and poring over details of tests.

That was a bit of an asshole move at the end but she couldn't stop herself smiling at the image of him hard at work. She wouldn't be surprised if he had a particular affinity for this Quirk considering the similarities with his own. For all of his abnormal intelligence Izuku could develop rather serious blind spots; a combination of casual disregard for most people coupled with a natural arrogance that was only mostly deserved. Actually that was true for most people; once assumptions were built up people would instinctively fortify them when they were challenged.

Two quirks with similar DNA arising in Japan was not something she could overlook no matter how long the percentage overlap was. So she investigated and what came of her investigations was a deep descent into a rabbit hole that became more and more strange and problematic each step she took and each fragile connection she inferred. She grew more and more concerned as she traced the lines from Yagi to Shimura; and she inferred that the common percentage of DNA was the ability to transfer the Quirks. From then on she traced disciple-mentor, relationships back to a bit over a hundred years ago. From then onwards she was able to narrow down the possible existing Quirks by a great deal considering the absolute minority back then were Quirkless. The final inferences were child's play and like any correct hypothesis all the evidence repeatedly confirmed one answer.

"Dammit Hisashi," Brain swore, uncharacteristically worked up by the sheer fucking coincidence laid out bare before her; if that even was his name in the first place. She had speculated if was aware that the person he was engaging in business with was his own son and then made a negative judgement. Izuku deliberately acted differently in costume in order to draw attention away from his civilian identity and very few members of the Living Tree even knew his name. Furthermore the father-son duo only spoke occasionally out of costume over the phone and they hadn't met in person for a few years now. Still Brain had resolved to keep an even closer eye on All-For-One in future, more than she had already been using in the first place at least.

She calculated the disclosure of this information would foster a closer working relationship between the two of them, which would cause Izuku to divert his goals slightly but likely increase the size and backing of the Living Tree. Sharing information and resources it was exceedingly likely that All Might could be beaten. From then on the logistics were not important but Izuku could likely absorb the nascent group that Shigaraki was forming with not many difficulties. The fact that he hadn't already was only due to respect for All for One who would likely encourage it in that situation.

There seemed to be only benefits to this arrangement and no discernible downsides and yet for some reason Brain could not find it within herself to bring it up to her boss. A quick analysis of her feelings allowed her to isolate the reasoning. If she were to reveal it to Izuku then everything would change for him. She wouldn't forgive herself if the change she inflicted by her own choices would be to the detriment of the one who saved her.

xxx

Izuku stared at the gates at U.A school for a short while trying to stir some emotion within him. For many of the future heroes who arrived at these gates there would no doubt be a thrumming hope or nervousness inside them as they prepared for a life ahead taking down villains. Izuku cocked a smile at that as he placed his hands into his pockets and walked forward. There were no doubt a lot of deliciously informative Quirks that he could sequence and incorporate into his fighting style. To get the full effect he would need the student records, but Shigaraki had already said that he had a plan for that as well as a time for attack. He would likely have to sit the next one out or get a good body double. Ultimately he would probably send a member of Living Tree to aid his protégé, realistically it would be Sudor.

Izuku strolled towards his home room inwardly salivating at the various Quirks around him. He felt like a lion among unsuspecting lambs at this point. 'No, not lambs,' he inwardly reconsidered. Lambs don't have much meet on them. They were fattened sheep ripe for the taking. He was so absorbed in his contemplations that he failed to take into account the most dangerous part of any school, ninety degree blind corridors. He wasn't alone in making that same turn and he got a brief flicker of responsiveness before he crashed into something soft and went crashing into the ground.

"Good morning," Izuku said as he extricated himself from the mess and pulled himself to his feet. His hands were in his pocket the entire time so thankfully he didn't touch anything incriminating, especially since there was so much in front of him that was incriminating. He took one out and offered it to the girl on the floor who was rubbing her arm. She had black hair tied into a pony tail and her physique could be easily described as developed.

"Sorry, I wasn't concentrating," she said taking his hand and being pulled to her feet. "I was just looking around school before my class starts."

"I was also a bit out of sorts," Izuku said chuckling as he ruffled the back of his head. "Shall we split the blame Miss…?"

"Momo Yaoyorozu," the girl said, smiling eagerly. "And you are."

"Izuku Midoriya," he replied easily. "So which course are you in; hero, general, support or management?" It would be hero of course. The Yaoyorozu were a hero family in general and one of his supporters had a Quirk copied from a now dead member of their family. Izuku placed his hands in his pockets ruffling through his collection of Quirks before picking a seldom used one.

"I'm in the hero course 1-A," she said cheerfully. "And you?"

"I'm in the general course," Izuku replied. "I'm afraid the lifestyle of heroics is not for me. I'm glad to see that there are so many capable new heroes like you to protect people like me from the villains." Izuku smiled encouragingly at this point and Momo beamed in response although her face seemed to be a bit red at the thought of being knocked down by a future civilian.

"I'll do my best to protect you from villains in future then," she said before she suddenly seemed to remember something. "I should be going now before class starts," she said. "It was good to meet you Midoriya."

"It was likewise good to meet you, Yaoyorozu," Izuku said truthfully walking past her on the right. Just as soon as he entered her blind spot his fingers morphed into serrated whip-like limbs a few feet long and he twitched his hand sending them towards her left thigh. In an instant a thin cut opened up on her arm and started oozing blood and Izuku turned back dropping the Mutant Quirk.

"You're bleeding," he said acting surprised. "I didn't think the fall was that hard? Do you need a handkerchief?"

"I am," Yaoyorozu said sounding somewhat confused. "Oh," she said as she looked down and caught a glimpse of the blood. "No that is fine," she said pulling down her sleeve. Her skin bubbled slightly as cotton appeared and she started to swab the cut. "Thank you for telling me," she said gratefully. "That could have gone badly if I hadn't noticed."

"It's no problem," Izuku said flippantly. "You're probably going to get used to being cut in future." It was a morbid thing to say but the girl didn't pick it up. Instead she finished dabbing up the excess blood before she pulled out a band aid and placed it on the wound. With one last goodbye she deposited the cotton into a nearby bin and headed off. Izuku took a brief look to see the corridor still empty and there were no cameras before Attraction of Small Objects appeared inside his mind and he immediately summoned the bloody cotton from the bin.

"A most intriguing Quirk," he stated before he placed the bloody cotton inside a plastic container and slipped it into his bag.

xxx

"I'm sorry for my lateness," Izuku said bowing slightly to his teacher. That statement was only partially a lie he did find it inconvenient to be a bit late.

"By not arriving on time you are disrespecting me, your classmates and even yourself," the teacher a sharply dressed man with glasses said. Well he had two of those statements correct; Izuku didn't really respect his classmates or his teacher but he had the utmost respect for himself.

"That's enough," the teacher said. "You can take the last seat next to Shinso over there." He pointed out to some gloomy looking guy with purple messy hair. Izuku nodded and headed towards the empty seat sitting down and relaxing as he watched the rest of the homeroom. It had been so long since he had gone to an ordinary school after all; maybe he would enjoy the experience.

Nope, on second thoughts he wouldn't. The next hour or so was an extended homeroom in which the teacher went over the various rules of U.A and Izuku mentally started compiling All Might's Quirk again. He was currently at about ninety-six percent but the last few traces were by far and away the hardest. If he continued this way then it might take him until the end of the week to finally get it. Izuku actually got a lot more of it done while the teacher was talking and when he finally stopped going through all the rigour of the first day it was finally lunch time.

"So what's your story," Izuku said yawning into his hand as he spoke to the tired looking student next to him.

"Story," the purple headed guy said turning towards Izuku. "What do you mean by story?"

"Like have you ever got a four homer game in baseball or do you write shitty fanfiction about your favourite hero," Izuku started. "Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? You know basic stuff."

"I've done none of those things," the guy said to Izuku. "And you?"

"All three," Izuku stated proudly. "That's a lie," he half-lied. "I've only done two of those things," he said somewhat more truthfully.

"I still don't believe you," Izuku's conversant said. "But my name is Hitoshi Shinso. My dream is to join the hero course."

"Now you've got it," Izuku said smiling. He didn't really seem to have the muscle for it though. In fact it looked like a stiff breeze would blow him over. "Would you mind telling me what your Quirk is?"

"I would prefer to keep it a secret," Hitoshi stated as he headed towards the lunch room with Izuku following him somewhat.

"Fine, fine," Izuku said. "My Quirk allows me to pick stuff off the ground. Watch." Izuku raised his hand at that point bringing Attraction of Small Objects to the front as he picked up a piece of litter off the floor and flicked it towards the bin causing it to bump off the rim. Annoyed Izuku did the same thing and got it within the bin on his third try.

He entered the cafeteria just behind the stoic student and headed towards the food. After a few seconds however he felt eyes upon his back and immediately turned towards the source of his gaze meeting those eyes with his own. For the first time in a long time red met green and Izuku sized up his former friend and former tormentor expecting to find feelings of affection or hate that just weren't there. There was an almost empty feeling as if whatever connection they once had was clearly severed.

Whatever feelings were cut on his end there were clearly some existing on Bakugou's end. That was eminently understandable; after all their final confrontation didn't end in his favour. Izuku gave him a wide smile that seemed to stoke feelings of fury within him, but he seemed to force it down and turned away to his meal. Izuku really hoped he became a great hero; after all it would give him the perfect reason to beat the stuffing out of him again.

Izuku wasn't sure if it was the cooks at U.A being excellent but that was one of the best tasting meals he had ever eaten, even if the meat was a bit overcooked.

**NazgulBelserion: Sorry. All For One's thoughts would probably be closer to 'This person reminds me of my son' than this person is my son. Izuku doesn't resemble himself much in costume. But you were 100% correct in my motivation for writing this. I did want an Izuku who had a stronger reason to be a villain because of a stronger reason than feeling disillusioned over some heroes. Lastly Izuku has all the tools he needs to push his Quirk to top tier**


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